PORTLAND PILOTS (5-24, 1-8 WCC) at OREGON DUCKS (17-11, 2-7 PAC-12)
Dates: Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Location: Eugene, Ore.
Field: PK Park (4,000)
Video: Pac-12.com
Stats: GoDucks.com
Series: ORE leads 87-26
2015: #20 ORE 8, POR 2 (Feb. 24 @Eugene)
 
PROBABLE STARTERS (W-L, ERA)
POR: LHP Cole Doherty (0-2, 13.60)
ORE: RHP Trent Paddon (1-2, 8.69)
 
THIS WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots head back on the road this week for a non-conference game against the Oregon Ducks on Tuesday evening in Eugene, Ore.
• First pitch at PK Park is set for 6 p.m.
• The Pilots then continue their stay on the road by traveling to Provo, Utah, for a three-game West Coast Conference series against the Brigham Young Cougars.
• The BYU series begins on Thursday at 5 p.m. and continues with games on Friday and Saturday.
 
LAST WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots dropped a three-game WCC series to the Pepperdine Waves at Joe Etzel Field during the weekend; the Waves won by scores of 5-1, 9-5 and 3-1.
• Sunday's series finale last 11 innings and Portland starter Davis Tominaga logged 10.0 innings; Pepperdine scored two runs in the 11th after the Pilots had gone to the bullpen.
• Portland's lone run came on a solo home run by Kevin Farley in the bottom of the seventh inning.
• Cooper Hummel went yard in the loss on Saturday and the Waves used a four-run eighth inning to pull away for the win.
• Friday's game was briefly tied 1-1 before the Waves scores two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and another in the ninth.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Senior Caleb Whalen ranks eighth among active players nationally with 13 career triples, while fellow senior Turner Gill is tied for 12th with 47 career doubles.
• Davis Tominaga ranks sixth in the country and first in the WCC with two complete games; Gill is second in the WCC with five home runs.
• Gill, a senior, recently had a career-best 11-game hitting streak snapped.
• Portland's game against Seattle on Feb. 17 was the 3,000th game in the history of the University of Portland baseball program, which dates back to 1923.
• That Seattle game was also the 900th game at the helm of the Pilots for head coach Chris Sperry, who began his coaching career in 1998.
• Portland's 15 hits in the 9-7 loss at UC Riverside on Feb. 15 were the most hits for the Pilots in a game since April 3, 2013; the Pilots followed that performance with 15 more hits during a 9-0 win over Seattle at Joe Etzel Field on Feb. 17 and they collected 15 hits again on March 1 against UC Davis.
• The Pilots went 11-41 last season and posted a 5-22 record in the West Coast Conference.
• Four of Portland's 11 wins last season came on walk-offs.
• Caleb Whalen currently ranks second all-time at UP with 13 career triples, which is just one shy of Larry Farrell's (1958-61) all-time program career record of 14 triples.
• Whalen's six RBI's at Oregon on April 8 last year tied for the fourth most in a game in program history and it's the most RBI's by a Pilot since 2009, when Garrett Queen also drove in six against Hawai'i.
• The Pilots were picked to finish 10th in a pre-season poll of the WCC's 10 head coaches.
• Joe Etzel Field, Portland's home ballpark, received a new surface during the off-season, switching from natural grass to artificial AstroTurf; the Etz also received new fencing, bullpens and a scoreboard and the improvements mark the beginning of a three-phase, long-term upgrade to the facility.
• Sperry, a former standout catcher/infielder for the Pilots, has compiled 340 career wins in 17+ years at the helm; he trails only long-time Portland coach Joe Etzel, who collected 378 career wins in 21 seasons (1966-86).
• Joining Sperry on the bench are assistants Larry Casian (9th year), Tucker Brack (7th year) and Jeremy Beard (2nd year).
• Casian, a pitcher, spent parts of nine years in the big leagues with the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
• The Ducks, who fell out of the nationally rankings this week, dropped a three-game Pac-12 series last weekend at Arizona after previously winning three straight.
• Oregon is batting .256 as a team and has a 3.63 staff ERA; juniors Phil Craig-St. Louis and Mitchell Tolman lead the team with a .302 batting average, senior Shaun Chase has a team-best four home runs and junior Brandon Cuddy has driven in a team-high 22 runs.
• George Horton is in his seventh year as head coach at Oregon and he's led the Ducks to three straight NCAA post-season appearances.