Pilots Win Thriller at Washington

The Pilots finished with 17 hits, including four doubles, a triple and a home run.

Salem-News.com SPORTS

SEATTLE - The University of Portland baseball team picked up a 13-11 victory over the Washington Huskies Tuesday afternoon on a cold and rainy day in Seattle. The Pilots improve to 4-3 on the year while the Huskies fall to 1-6.

It was easily Portland’s best game of the year from the plate as they recorded season highs in nearly every offensive category.

The Pilots finished with 17 hits, including four doubles, a triple and a home run.

Six different players had multiple-hit games for Portland, including senior third baseman Jesse Rodgers and freshman shortstop C.J. Cullen, who had three hits and two RBI apiece.

Junior rightfielder Corey Wiltshire had his best game of the season, going 2-6 with a two-run homer in the fifth.

Wiltshire finished with three RBI and two runs scored.

Senior designated hitter Adam Kerr continued his hot start at the plate, finishing with three RBI on one hit to go along with two runs scored. Justin Pierce, Brandon Howard and Chase Powell also had two hits each.

On the mound, junior Given Kutz got the start but lasted only 1 and two-thirds innings after allowing five runs.

Junior Ari Ronick entered in relief and pitched a strong two and a third innings, striking out four while allowing only one run to pick up the win.

On the year, Ronick (1-0) now has a 0.93 earned run average and 10 strikeouts over 9.2 innings pitched.

Senior Chris Siegfriend and sophomore Brian Yaokum also made relief appearances before senior closer Josh Roberts picked up his second save of the year.

Trailing 5-0 after two innings, the Pilots bounced back with three in the top of the third to cut into the lead and six in the fourth to take a 9-6 advantage.

Portland scored four runs over the next three innings to push the lead to 13-8, but the Huskies made things interesting late in the game after taking advantage of three Pilot errors to score three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

For the game, Portland committed a season-high seven errors.

Down 13-11, Washington loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the eighth off Roberts, but Roberts got Washington’s Matt Hague to ground into a double play to end the threat.

The Huskies again loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but Roberts struck out Husky catcher Joey Dunn to end the game.

For Washington, designated hitter Ty Rassmussen led the way with three RBI, including a solo homer in the second, on 2-4 hitting.

Dunn had three hits on the afternoon and Hague and leftfielder Kyle Conley had a pair of RBI each. The Huskies finished with 14 hits and three errors for the game.

Bryce Mooney picked up the loss for the Huskies, giving up six runs in one-third innings.

Next up for Portland is a home game against Linfield on Wednesday, at 2:00 PM before embarking on an eight game California road trip.

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