Riding a strong start to the season, the Pilots traveled last week for eight road games
By Nicholas Slepnikoff
With MLB Spring Training abroad and the first sun seen in Portland for months, the Pilot baseball team has taken to the diamond once more.
Fifteen games into the season, the Pilots have played since their George Fox 8-0 win, Arkansas State, Memphis, Oregon State and Utah. This past weekend, while students and teachers enjoyed their time off, the Pilots baseball team was hard at work playing eight games on the road.
Sophomore Beau Fraser thought the past week was a learning opportunity, but also very taxing.
"It was definitely a grind," Fraser said. "Eight games in 10 or 11 days is pretty tough. But, I felt like we battled in each of the games and played well as a team."
Laboring through double headers and health troubles, Head Baseball Coach Chris Sperry said the Pilots have started the season off strong at 10-5 overall, and 6-1 at home.
"I think we're very pleased," Sperry said. "We had a real successful start to the season here during the first two opening weekends. Then, our first road trip was successful, winning three out of four at Arkansas State and Memphis."
After beating George Fox (9-8) on March 2nd, the Pilots traveled to Arkansas (10-5) for a three game series. Losing their first game 0-7, the Pilots persevered, securing the last two wins in the series (8-3, 5-4).
Shutting down Arkansas State in game two of the series, both Fraser and senior C.J. Cullen contributed to the team's 8-3 victory, each racking up four hits and five hits, respectively. In this game, the Pilots also tallied a season high of 18 hits.
Although the sophomore pitcher Kyle Kraus struggled in the early stages of the game, solid pitching and hitting kept the team on top throughout the match.
Additionally, after buckling down, Kraus, with the help of sophomores Owen Jones and Keeler Brynteson, recorded his first win of the season. Fraser thinks pitching has helped keep them alive.
"We're pitching real well, that's for sure," Fraser said. "Aside from a few things here and there, we are throwing the ball real well. The pitchers are giving us chances in every game and keeping us right there.
In game three of the Red Wolves series, the Pilots also managed to come from behind, with two runs scored under pressure. With one out left, a late hit from Fraser allowed senior Austin Pearce to tie the game. After, sophomore Kris Kauppila capitalized on a wild pitch from Arkansas, who sprinted home and pushed the Pilots to victory.
After the successful routing of the Red Wolves, the Pilots traveled to University of Memphis. Riding the confidence of the two-game streak, the squad trumped the 5-10 Tigers in a 7-2 victory. Fraser also recorded his first home run of the season.
Following their return from Memphis, 14 players contracted food poisoning, according to Sperry. Although it did affect their week, Cullen felt it was only a minor setback.
"I think we were well enough recovered by the time games came back around," Cullen said.
However, Sperry also said that the team, which has not pinpointed the exact cause of the poisoning, struggled last week.
"Last week, we weren't able to train much because guys were just real weak," Sperry said. "It wasn't a very pleasant experience."
Although the team struggled during Spring Break, the Pilot squad returned to two double headers versus the 7-7 University of Utah Utes and 10-3 Oregon State Beavers. Playing Utah and Oregon State on the 13th, the Pilots posted four runs securing a 4-1 victory over the Utes.
Tired and still recovering from the food poisoning, the Pilot team lost the second game, 5-6, to the Beavers.
Following the Beavers loss on the 13th, the Pilots lost both of their March 14 games to the Utes and Beavers (1-6 and 2-9, respectively).
"We didn't play particularly well in Corvallis this last weekend," Sperry said. "We won the first one, played fine - and then let a game against Oregon State get away from us that we should have won."
On March 14, Sperry continued, the Pilots didn't play well at all. However, 15 games in, Sperry said he was pleased, but anxious to return to Utah. Sperry, despite the later games, thought the Pilots played well.
"We've been getting generally good pitching," Sperry said. "For the most part, we are getting good starts out of our starting pitchers."
To improve, Sperry also thinks the Pilots need to work on their hitting when in scoring position (142 hits on the season). Also, Sperry thinks some "key members" of the bullpen should perform better.
Conversely, the team's perseverance has impressed Sperry in the past two weeks.
"The thing that has stuck out the most is the confidence that the kids have in winning even when they're behind late in the game," Sperry said. "We've come from behind a number of times, and they don't seem to have a lot of quit in them - lots of determination."
Next on the Pilot schedule is a three day road series in Orem, Utah starting today. Facing the 4-6 Utah Valley University Wolverines, Fraser is confident the team will do well.
"We have a good chance of going in and at least taking two of three (games), if not three of three (games)," Fraser said.
Cullen also thinks it will be a good chance for the team to prove itself.
"I feel like we're coming together really well as a team," Cullen said, "and this should be a good chance to get on the winning side again."
