Pilots Baseball Home Opener

Baseball season is finally upon us, my favorite sport and a new team to watch! The Pilots home opener is today at 2:00 pm vs. Seattle. I hope they open up the berm at the new field, as I am eager to see what it is like and maybe even bring my kids to the weekend games to sit on the hill.

I would love to be at the game today... one could not ask for better weather for a home opener!

I'm hopeful that the in-process renovations to the baseball facilities can lead to a renaissance of the Pilots program. Getting new turf was key in allowing more practice time in inclement weather... installing lights and the new grandstand will be significant, as I really think that night games will draw good crowds, due to the lack of other baseball options in the city, and the growth of the college game in OR thanks to 2 others programs a bit further south.

completely agree! It is a shame this city does not have a Triple A team.

The late great, Ernie Banks, would have said it was, "a great day to play two," but the one game the Pilots played was a wonderful way to open home season at upgraded Joe Etzel Field.

After losing four games in Riverside last weekend, the Pilots have to feel good about their 9-0 win today over Seattle U. that included 3 RBI from Kevin Wade.

I was in Sacramento yesterday, and thought seriously about attending the Pilots at Hornets game, but after attending the weekend basketball games, and knowing the baseball team had just lost 3 straight to the Hornets, I opted to head home instead.

Result: UP 2 Sac St. 0.  Excellent complete game shutout by Davis Tominaga, with both Pilots' runs scoring in the top half of the 9th.

The Pilots are now 2-7, and all the losses have come on the road against good California teams....Tuesday they face the Ducks in Eugene at 6 PM....it should be a great evening for baseball under the lights.

Tominaga, it should be noted, is also the everyday first baseman, which makes his CG even cooler. 

Since Casian came in as pitching coach I get the impression that the Pilots' pitching is good enough to keep the score down most games. The question has been the hitting. When they put both together they get wins like they did against Seattle last week.

Hey, the Pilots may be 3-9 overall, but they are now 2-0 at home after defeating UC Davis 5-2 today.

First baseman Davis Tominaga achieved his first career save!

The series continues on Saturday and Sunday in the sunshine at 1PM at Joe Etzel Field.

By the time the basketball fans arrived at the baseball game today it was already 6-1 in favor of UCD, and that was the final score.

Nine hits for UCD and 8 hits for UP, but UP left 9 runners on base.

What we late arrivers saw was 3 innings of no-hit ball by the Pilots, but also four runners left on base by the home team in the final 2 innings....adding even more frustration for the fans that had just watched the Pilots lackluster performance on the basketball court.

Maybe our Tennis teams will be good this year...

Why is this team still coached by Sperry? He's a terrible coach and a terrible recruiter. As long as he's at the helm, this team will continue to lose.

While I'm on the subject, why should a perennial losing team get so many upgrades to their facilities? And if they get upgrades, it should be to help the team win. Artificial turf is not the answer. It's a sorry excuse to waste more university money on terrible athletic teams when the good and average lower profile teams are put on the backburner and get nothing.

Did coach Sperry cut you?

Nope. But youre delusional if you think that coach sperry should be the coach. He's been the coach for 14 years and has had one winning season. Thats sad for a D1 program. He should have been fired 10 years ago.

pilotgang wrote:While I'm on the subject, why should a perennial losing team get so many upgrades to their facilities?  And if they get upgrades, it should be to help the team win.  Artificial turf is not the answer.  It's a sorry excuse to waste more university money on terrible athletic teams when the good and average lower profile teams are put on the backburner and get nothing.

I'm not writing to get in a discussion about Coach Sperry's employment, but I would like to know what teams you believe are on the back burner or getting nothing.  I think that is the only way someone can make an accurate reply to your discontent or even help with a fund raising campaign.  It's one thing to simply gripe, but it is another thing to get involved and help underfunded programs.

Regarding the "sorry excuse to waste more university money" on the new baseball field, scoreboard, and lighting that will be installed this summer, you do realize that all the funds for the upgrades of Joe Etzel Field were given to the university by individuals outside the university, and were donor specified for certain aspects of the project, right?  A number of quite large donations and some smaller ones too made it possible to have a first class stadium which, I believe, will be the only baseball specific lighted stadium in Portland....a stadium that now has the potential to help recruit UP players for year-round practice and play without the annoyance of wets grounds and canceled games.  I have heard the field may be a future venue for non-UP events too.

Regarding "the good and average lower profile teams are put on the backburner and get nothing," would you be willing to spearhead a specific fund drive to provide one or more of those teams with better funding?  From recent experience, I know there are a number of university officials who can be very helpful in such an endeavor.

Ok. I admit my wrong. The baseball upgrades were privately funded. But no athlete will choose a school based on having "better" facilities. It's about coaching. Whether you want to discuss it or not, my problem is with Coach Sperry. His terrible coaching record will never be able to recruit higher profile players. Nobody wants to play to lose.

pilotgang wrote:But no athlete will choose a school based on having "better" facilities.

Don't tell Phil Knight and the UO that!!

pilotgang wrote:But no athlete will choose a school based on having "better" facilities.

I will partially agree that I think coaching is very important, and likely the most important factor... but what is your background/data/research to support such a definitive statement?

As DD mentioned, I am sure the Administration would love to hear your thoughts about whichever programs you feel are under-funded, and would like having interested parties involved.

In a recent MBX radio broadcast interview, Scott Leykam referred to an upcoming broad based fund raising campaign for all Pilot athletic programs... so you may want to raise your hand sooner rather than later.

Thought I'd head over to Etzel Field tomorrow after the Alumni Awards to watch the Pilots take on the Huskies with 3 of my UW graduate buddies.....

Turns out the game has been postponed because UW realized their players "have to take final exams."  

Three different reactions from my UW buddies:

1. Seriously, our athletes started taking exams?
2. You sure it's not just a pop-quiz....aren't finals usually scheduled in advance?
3. Probably just as well, now we can all just go to the T-Room for St. Patrick's Day.

I had vowed to NOT write about baseball until the Pilots won two in a row, but after a dismal start to their season, the boys made me break that vow by beating the Ducks last evening in Eugene.

In the few innings of play I've seen this year there really hasn't been anything to shout about, and the team is 1-5 in WCC play, the only win coming at SMC over a week ago.

Probably a pretty happy bunch on the bus ride home last night, but now reality will set in again as the Pilots fly to Utah today for a 3-game series with BYU starting tomorrow.....all the game will be on BYUtv.

It's baseball. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. This win is overshadowed by a 6-24 record with losing streaks of 5 and 8 games.

Watched a couple of very good ballgames over the last two evenings as BYU and UP squared off on BYUtv.   The Cougars won on Friday and the Pilots prevailed this evening.....

But the story was how hard the Pilots play.  They ran and dove and almost literally ran through a wall on both nights.  This team may only have two WCC wins so far this year, but it hasn't dampened their determination and willingness to "leave it all on the field," I believe the cliché goes.

Last night the Pilots had excellent starting pitching, but the batters were hitting line drives right at the fielders and UP lost, 3-1.  Tonight it was a different story.....still good pitching, but the line drives were going past the outfielders for doubles.  In the bottom of the 9th tonight the Cougars had the bases loaded with no outs, but the Pilots pitching held them to one run and UP won 6-3.

A fun team to watch, the guys really looked good in their black and purple jerseys with the new Pilots logo.  They made me want to come out to Joe Etzel field on Tuesday for their game against Oregon at 3pm.

Well, I think by any standard the 2015 season was VERY disappointing in terms of wins/losses.

The Pilots won back-to-back games in Stockton on Saturday and Sunday to end the season with a record of 12-42, finishing in last place in the WCC with a record of 7-20.

I honestly know so little about the program that I can't begin to answer the question, "What is wrong with Pilots baseball," but I'm hoping AD Scott Leykam has some idea what is needed to bring a first class team to what will soon be a first class field that will include lighting for night baseball.

As a high school baseball player and long time fast-pitch softball player, I always regarded baseball to be a team game, but played individually.  Unlike soccer, basketball, volleyball, or even rowing, I've always thought of baseball as strictly an individual skill game that simply required good coaching to better develop those skills and make the tactical decisions needed to win close games.....including closely managing the pitching staff.

Every UP baseball player I've spoken with this season has enjoyed the UP experience and the camaraderie and effort of their teammates.  So without knowing any of the particulars of the program, it's difficult for me to say if there's a need for a change at the top, but with the team seemingly sliding deeper into the abyss of mediocrity, it would appear something big is needed to get this program back to a level of competitiveness.

Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.  You need skilled players who can hit, throw and catch.

up7587 wrote:Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.  You need skilled players who can hit, throw and catch.

Nice idea. Is the program fully funded yet?

Tough to recruit with no money to offer.

Good question on being fully funded. DOes anyone know? If not, I would hope that funding for scholarships and coaches is being included in the current baseball fund rasiing!

What do you mean by fully funded? If you're referring to scholarship numbers, baseball is limited, but I'm mostly sure that's due to NCAA regs. NCAA has very strict limits on the number of baseball scholarships. Baseball is more restrictive than other sports too -- to include limiting the number of people that any team can have on scholarship. As I remember, it's limited to something like 11-12 scholarships allowed per team (which are divided among the players). Minimum scholarship is 25% and only a certain number of players on the Roster can be on scholarship (I think it's something like 27 or 28). So, by rule, there is always a number of non-scholarship players on the team. There are other ways for "walk on's" to get funding, I believe including Academic money and other sources (e.g. GI Bill if their parents are military or retired military).