PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland baseball team's bats came alive early and often in a dominating 13-4 victory over San Diego Sunday to clinch the three-game West Coast Conference series and remain atop the league standings. Zach Toglia drilled two of Portland's four home runs, Ben Patacsil had five RBI and Sam Stuhr struck out seven Toreros in seven strong innings to pace the Pilots (22-11, 8-1 WCC).
Toglia finished 3-for-5 at the plate, supplementing his two home runs with three runs scored. Patacsil also went 3-for-5 with a home run and five RBI, while sophomore Brady Bean chipped in for the Pilots, going 3-for-5 with a triple, two runs and four RBI. Christian Cooney and Jake Holcroft added two hits apiece.
Stuhr (3-1) picked up the win for the Portland. The right-hander went seven innings, giving up three runs, one earned, on two hits, allowing four walks and striking out seven. Curtis Hebert finished the final two frames allowing just one run.
Starter Calvin Schapira (3-1) took the loss for the Toreros (22-12, 8-4), who managed just four hits on the day.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Pilots scored at least one run in each of the first five innings to build a big cushion for Stuhr. Patacsil drilled a two-out, RBI single through the left side scoring Cooney to go up 1-0 in the first. Toglia belted a solo shot in the second and then Patacsil hammered a three-run homer down the left field line in the third to make it 5-0.
San Diego loaded the bases with one out in the fourth and got an RBI groundout from Justin Decriscio, but Stuhr limited the damage to just one run in the frame.
Toglia deposited his second bomb of the game to nearly the same spot to spark a five-run fourth inning. Holcroft added an RBI single and Bean sent a two-run triple to the right center gap. Patacsil finished the scoring with another run scoring base hit up the middle to make it 10-1.
Bean brought in two more runs with a single through the left side in the fifth inning and Tyler Howard capped Portland's scoring with a solo home run in the eighth.
Jakob Christian accounted for USD's final three runs with a two-run homer in the fifth and solo shot in the eighth.
GAME NOTES
» The four home runs marked a single-game high this season for the Pilots.
» Toglia now leads the team with six homers overall.
» Portland got three-hit games from four different hitters and multi-hit games from six players.
» Holcroft logged his 14th multi-hit game of the year and is now batting a team-high .345 overall.
» Portland now has six primary starters batting above .300 for the season.
» Stuhr's seven strikeouts gives him a WCC best 72 on the season (fellow Pilot Nick Brink is second with 71).
» The Pilots had a total of 17 hits, fourth most for a single game this year.
» Portland went 7-for-14 (.500) with runners in scoring position.
» Portland pitchers limited San Diego to just 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
» Portland pitchers faced 39 San Diego hitters in the game, allowing seven ground balls and 11 fly balls while striking out eight.
» The Toreros left eight runners on base, while the Pilots stranded seven.
» San Diego's Christian now leads the WCC with 15 home runs on the season.
Up Next
Portland visits the Washington Huskies on Tuesday at 4 p.m. before heading to Spokane, Wash. for a three-game WCC series against the Gonzaga Bulldogs. Friday and Saturday's games are scheduled for 6 p.m. starts and the series finale on Sunday is at 1 p.m.
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