2023 Baseball

UP Athletics wrote:"We're looking to build on the momentum and excitement we generated in 2022, where we finished in the top 100 nationally in RPI, had 32 wins, finished second in the West Coast Conference standings and earned a berth to the WCC postseason tournament for the first time in program history," Loomis said. "To do that, we'll need to again play high-quality non-conference games throughout the season. We look forward to that challenge. I feel like we've accomplished that with this 2023 schedule."

2023 Portland Baseball Schedule
Feb. 17 at Utah Tech, 6 PM
Feb. 18 at Utah Tech (DH), 2 PM
Feb. 19 at Utah Tech, 1 PM
Feb. 24 at Texas A&M, 6 PM
Feb. 25 at Texas A&M, 2 PM
Feb. 26 at Texas A&M, 1 PM
March 3 vs. Utah Valley, 3 PM
March 4 vs. Utah Valley (DH), 12 PM
March 5 vs. Utah Valley, 1 PM
March 7 vs. Washington, 4 PM
March 10 vs. Niagara, 3 PM
March 11 vs. Niagara, 3 PM
March 12 vs. Niagara, 3 PM
March 13 vs. Niagara, 3 PM
March 14 vs. Oregon, 5 PM
March 17 vs. Pepperdine, 6 PM*
March 18 vs. Pepperdine, 3 PM*
March 19 vs. Pepperdine, 1 PM*
March 21 at Oregon State, 5:35 PM
March 24 at Pacific, 6 PM*
March 25 at Pacific, 3 PM*
March 26 at Pacific, 1 PM*
March 28 at Washington, 4 PM
March 31 at Saint Mary's, 3 PM*
April 1 at Saint Mary's, 1 PM*
April 2 at Saint Mary's, 2 PM*
April 4 at Oregon, 5 PM
April 6 vs. LMU, 6 PM*
April 7 vs. LMU, 3 PM*
April 8 vs. LMU, 1 PM*
April 11 at Seattle U, 3 PM
April 14 at San Diego, 6 PM*
April 15 at San Diego, 5 PM*
April 16 at San Diego, 1 PM*
April 19 vs. Seattle U, 3 PM
April 21 vs. Gonzaga, 6 PM*
April 22 vs. Gonzaga, 3 PM*
April 23 vs. Gonzaga, 1 PM*
April 27 at BYU, 6 PM*
April 28 at BYU, 6 PM*
April 29 at BYU, 1 PM*
May 9 vs. Oregon State, 5:30 PM^
May 12 vs. Santa Clara, 6 PM*
May 13 vs. Santa Clara, 3 PM*
May 14 vs. Santa Clara, 1 PM*
May 16 vs. Oregon State, 5:30 PM
May 18 at San Francisco, 2 PM*
May 19 at San Francisco, 2 PM*
May 20 at San Francisco, 12 PM*
May 25-28 WCC Tournament

*Indicates WCC game
Home games in bold
^Game at Ron Tonkin Field

Copyright 2022 University of Portland Athletic
https://portlandpilots.com/news/2022/12/4/pilot-baseball-announces-2023-spring-schedule.aspx

An update to the schedule: The Pilots home opener is now on Wednesday March 1 vs. Seattle U. at 3pm.

Here's a nice preview of the team from The Beacon:

https://www.upbeacon.com/article/2023/02/the-voices-of-pilot-athletics

A 10-3 win at No. 5 Texas A&M--the highest-ranked opponent UP baseball has ever beaten--is certainly a great way to get some attention!

In addition to the PortlandPilots.com recap, there were write-ups in The Oregonian, the NCAA website, and D1Baseball.com, which named it the "Upset of the Day."

Go Pilots!

Pilots take two in a row in College Station, beating the #5 Aggies 4-1.

Making it even sweeter for the UP administration, Texas A&M paid something like $25,000, transportation, and meals for the Pilots to visit.

UP is now 5-1 on the season after taking 3 out of 4 from Utah Tech (Dixie St.) last weekend.

With the series won vs. the Aggies, the Pilots will look for the series sweep tomorrow at 11am.

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks wrote:It's a beautiful day for a ballgame. Let's play two today!

It's a beautiful weekend for baseball on The Bluff, and the Pilots will play three games against the Pepperdine Waves starting at 6pm tonight and continuing Saturday at 3pm and Sunday at 1pm.

The women's soccer team plays on Merlo Field against St. Martins Saturday at 2pm, so you can wander over to Joe Etzel Field at the conclusion of that game.

UP's game against PU tonight is the first WCC game for both clubs.  The Pilots are 10-6 in the preseason, and the Waves are 5-9.

This season's WCC Tournament will be in Las Vegas May 25 - 28.

DoubleDipper wrote:

Hall of Famer Ernie Banks wrote:It's a beautiful day for a ballgame. Let's play two today!

It's a beautiful weekend for baseball on The Bluff, and the Pilots will play three games against the Pepperdine Waves starting at 6pm tonight and continuing Saturday at 3pm and Sunday at 1pm.

Still in SoCal after watching WBB but hope a number of fans turned out to watch the Pilots (3-0) sweep the Waves (0-3) over the weekend.

Next game is in Corvallis on Tuesday at 5:35, and then it's down to Stockton for a three games series beginning Friday.

Next time the Pilots play at home is on Thursday April 6 at 6pm starting a three-game series against LMU.

Jake Holcroft and Jacob Dobmeier Earn WCC Player of the Week Honors...

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2023/3/20/baseball-holcroft-dobmeier-earn-wcc-player-of-the-week-honors.aspx

(Psst...Jake, a 6th year player from Southern California, is Haylee Andrew's boyfriend... )

After sweeping PU the previous weekend at home, the Pilots went down to Stockton and swept the Tigers over this past weekend, 19-4, 14-5, and 5-1.  UP has now 9-0 against UOP over the last three seasons...the longest winning streak against a WCC opponent in program history.

Portland is now 6-0 in WCC play, also for the first time in program history. UP is now 16-7 overall and is the only unbeaten team in WCC play.

Next up: at Washington, a three-game series in Moraga, another game at UO, and then finally home against LMU beginning April 6.

Evan Scovatto named WCC Player of the Week, making this the second week in a row a Pilot has earned that recognition:

https://portlandpilots.com/news/2023/3/27/baseball-evan-scavotto-named-wcc-player-of-the-week.aspx

The upcoming midweek contests against UW & UO are nice opportunities/measuring sticks as UW is coming off a road series win against top-10 UCLA and UO ranks #16 in the RPI (not exactly sure how that is figured). UO also has a 4-game sweep of WCC conference foe USD on their resume.

While these mid-week, noncon games aren't terribly important in the big picture of the WCC, they are fun to see how the Pilots stack up to these higher conference opponents. In the past, you would sometimes see the Pilots throw their "A-squad" (especially in regard to pitchers used) at these teams while they just used the games as opportunities to get younger kids playing time. Recently, as the Pilots have built their own program up, they have also turned towards getting other kids playing and development time in these game themselves. Case in point, running out 3 freshman pitchers to face the OSU Beavers last week. They held their own, very likely should have won but ended up being undone by the 5 errors they made with a few crucial ones late in the game.

Looking like another step in the right direction for Pilots Baseball/the Pilots AD. Onward!

The Pilots salvaged a win at SMC yesterday after losing the first two games of the series, and are now tied for first with LMU and GU.

1 - (7-2)
Portland
LMU
Gonzaga

4 - (5-4)
San Diego
Saint Mary

6 - (4-5)
Santa Clara

7 - (3-6)
San Francisco
BYU

9 - (2-7)
Pacific
Pepperdine

I'm down in Eugene and headed to the Pilots game against the Ducks on Tuesday. It's been awhile since I've watched an entire baseball game, but I'm up for the challenge. Go Pilots.

For those of you who are interested in making the trip to Joe Etzel Field, Portland hosts both LMU and Gonzaga this month. LMU April 6-8 & Gonzaga April 21-23. Both series will play a big factor on the top half of conference play

badcoverage wrote:I'm down in Eugene and headed to the Pilots game against the Ducks on Tuesday. It's been awhile since I've watched an entire baseball game, but I'm up for the challenge. Go Pilots.

It has been a while since I sat through a college game because it always seems so danged cold and wet when the Pilots play, but the quality of the streaming on the Pilots/WCC network is first rate.

And on the subject of sitting through a baseball game, I loved the new rules to speed up MLB games while watching a few innings on TV this past weekend.  

I don't know what the new rules are, but it seemed that in addition to the pitcher having deliver the ball within a certain number of seconds, the batter was timed getting into the box, the trips to the mound were limited, and the number of throw overs to first base by the pitcher were limited.

I agree. The new rules, especially the rule pertaining to "The shift..." are great. More hits = More runs! However, I do question limiting the throw over to 1st, 2nd or 3rd base. How do you limit that aspect of the game without giving the advantage to the runner?

badcoverage wrote:I agree. The new rules, especially the rule pertaining to "The shift..." are great. More hits = More runs! However, I do question limiting the throw over to 1st, 2nd or 3rd base. How do you limit that aspect of the game without giving the advantage to the runner?

I love how the base stealer adds to the excitement (and potential runs) of the game.

I have no idea who the speedsters of today are, but watching Lou Brock, Ricky Henderson, Maury Wills, Tim Raines, and Joe Morgan on the bases and disrupting the rhythm of pitcher was always worth the price of admission for me.

One of my other favorite base stealers was a guy who never came to the plate, but was Charley Finley's "designated base stealer," Herb Washington who was with the Oakland A's in the mid-70s at a time the A's won back-to-back-to-back World Series titles.  In his 105 appearances, Washington had zero at bats but stole 31 bases and scored 33 runs.

The Pilots' first series win over Gonzaga since 2015 puts UP in second place in the WCC (tied with USD, but Portland holds the tiebreaker) with two series left to go.

After losing the first game of the 3-game series in Provo in 10-innings, the Pilots game back to take the next 2 games, 12-10 and 22-8...

This was the 3rd season in a row (and last) the Pilots have taken the series from BYU.  

UP is now 13-8 in WCC play and the guys are now off for Finals Week before playing OSU at Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro on May 9 at 5:30. The game will also be televised on the CW.



Today, USD plays at LMU and UOP is at GU...so, there could be a tie at the top, and UP and GU could be tied for third at the end of the day.

This weekend, USD took two out of three at LMU, GU swept UOP at home, and UP won the series at BYU.

So now UP is tied for 2nd place with GU and USD, but owns the tiebreaker with both having won two out of three from both teams this season.  LMU swept UP earlier in the season.

Big 3-game series for the Pilots this weekend against Santa Clara.

The two teams are tied for 3rd place in the WCC with only six games left before the WCC Tournament begins on May 25 in Las Vegas, and both teams will be looking for a series sweep in an attempt to move into the all-important top two places before the season ends.  

It's going to be a HOT weekend, and this is our last chance to see the Pilots play at home this season.

Friday - 6pm; Saturday - 3pm; Sunday - 1pm.

A good start to the series last evening with Nick Brink (4-0) dominating on the mound for the Pilots, fanning nine SCU hitters over seven innings to help lead UP over the Broncos 7-1.

Jacob Dobmeier came on in relief for the final two innings of shutout ball.

Meanwhile, LMU and USD both won to maintain their leads over the 3rd place Pilots.

Next game today at 3pm.

Scott Leykam @sleykam wrote:With the win, @PortlandBSB clinches spot in WCC Baseball Championships on May 24-27 in Las Vegas. Big series win over hot Santa Clara team that came to town with 9 wins in their last 10 games.

UP 8 - 4 SCU

up7587 wrote:

Scott Leykam @sleykam wrote:With the win, @PortlandBSB clinches spot in WCC Baseball Championships on May 24-27 in Las Vegas. Big series win over hot Santa Clara team that came to town with 9 wins in their last 10 games.

UP 8 - 4 SCU

Second year in a row the Pilots have made the Championships after never having been there before.

LMU won yesterday to strengthen its hold on 1st place and USD lost, moving the Pilots into 2nd place for now.  USD's season ends today, so the Pilots just need to 2 or 3 more games to clinch 2nd.

Pilots did not sweep SCU. In a pitcher's duel the Broncos scored 21 on 17 hits, while the Pilots "only" got 10 on 15 hits.

Coming home from the coast on a warm late afternoon, I was invited to come through Corvallis to watch a college baseball game and it was well worth the experience of the short detour.

The Pilots scored 14 runs on 20 hits and along with some good relief pitching UP to prevailed over #10 OSU, 14-8.  I was later told it was the first time UP had won at OSU since 2006.

But what impressed me was the turnout of Beaver fans who literally packed the stadium (3,500?), leaving just a scattering of empty seats which my host said were "probably held by season ticket holders who were on vacation."  

Today the Pilots travel to San Francisco to take on the Dons in a very important season-ending three game series beginning tomorrow.

As I can tell, if the Pilots can win the series (take at least 2 out of the 3 games) at USF, they will be locked into finishing top 2 in the conference. Top 2 seeds get a 'first round' bye in the conference tournament.

#3 plays #6 and #4 plays #5 in a single elimination game in the first round. It then moves to a double elimination format for the remaining 4 teams. Go Pilots! Lock up that bye and save some pitching.

San Francisco, by the way, is 7-17 in conference (UP 15-9) and tied for second to last. What could possibly go wrong..