RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Portland Pilots (9-4) snapped their three-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the UC Riverside Highlanders (1-11).
Eli Morse earned the win for Portland after pitching six innings with four runs allowed and six strikeouts. Morse has a team-high four wins on the year. Peter Allegro earned his third save of the year in relief for Portland, throwing two strikeouts with one hit allowed in 1.2 innings. Nick Nygard also got 1.1 innings of work, throwing two strikeouts with no runs allowed.
Five different batters had multiple hits on the day for Portland. Jake Tsukada put up the biggest numbers there, going 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a stolen base. Sam Brown, Tony Boetto and Trace Tammaro also each had two hits and an RBI while Jake Holcroft added two hits of his own in five at bats. The Pilots scored five runs on 13 total hits.
Portland opened up the scoring with two runs in the first inning. Brown drove in the first run, bringing home Holcroft with an RBI double. Boetto was then able to bring home Brown with a big single to right field, making it 2-0 Pilots.
It wouldn't stay 2-0 for long. The Highlanders responded in the bottom frame with a run of their own, coming off an RBI single from Joey Nicolai. The first baseman came up big for Riverside again in the third inning, earning the tying run with another RBI single. The Highlanders took the lead later in the inning off a wild pitch from Morse to make it 3-2 Riverside.
The Highlanders extended their lead to two with a sacrifice fly from Anthony Mcfarland in the fourth inning. But after some tough at-bats in the previous three innings, the Pilots came up big in the fifth. Tammaro started things off with an RBI single to right field that brought Brown home. Ben Patacsil managed to get Boetto home soon after with a sacrifice play. But the most important run came right after, with Jake Tsukada lining a double to make it 5-4 Portland. The Pilots had the lead.
After that, it was a matter of just holding the Highlanders off, and Portland did just that. Riverside only had two hits after the fourth inning, unable to score a run. The Pilots would take the opener 5-4.
The Pilots and Highlanders will play a doubleheader tomorrow to determine the victor of the series. The first game will start at 10 a.m. with the second game taking place 45 minutes afterwards. Check PortlandPilots.com for a link to live stats.
