by Hunter Jacobson |
The No. 3 Oregon State Beavers braved the rain and took Joe Etzel Field by storm on Tuesday night, cruising to an easy 13-6 win over the Pilots. With the win, the Beavers, led by University of Portland alumnus Pat Casey, increase their winning streak over Portland to 23 games.
The loss drops the Pilots to 11-9 on the year while the Beavers improved to 16-2.
A win on Tuesday night would have been the Pilots 12th of the season, which would have tied their win total from last year.
Despite the loss, the Pilots showed massive improvements from their last game against Oregon State on May 13, 2015, where the Pilots didn’t score a single run and lost 20-0.
Their other two outings against Oregon State during the 2015 season didn’t end much better. The Pilots dropped those games by scores of 14-2 and 12-3. Still, Portland head coach Geoff Loomis said that the Pilots’ strategy has been looking forward.
“We don’t talk a lot about last year,” Loomis said, “We just focus on the team that we have this year and what they’re capable of. I think that’s what’s worked for us so far.”
After four and a half innings of play on Tuesday night, the Pilots found themselves in a 10-1 hole, seemingly headed for another lopsided loss at the hands of the Beavers. Their only run up to that point came when Michael Forgione scored from third when a ball scooted by the Oregon State catcher and made its way to the backstop.
But the Pilots fought back, scoring two runs in the 5th on a two-run homerun from center fielder Caleb Whalen. Forgione drove in two runs of his own in the following inning. The Pilots put three total runs on the board in the 6th.
The Oregon State bats were just too dominant for the Pilots to come all the way back. They put runs on the board in six of the nine innings, totaling 13 runs on 14 hits.
Michael Forgione said while his team expected The Beavers to perform well, the Pilots were proud of the improvements they have made and their performance.
“We’re off to a pretty good start this year, and I think our mentality has changed,” Forgione said. “We’re walking around with a little more swag.”
Forgione sees the new coaching staff as a huge component in the team's early successes because they bring tremendous knowledge of the game to every series.
“We have so much information at our disposal with these four (coaches),” he said. “We are really well prepared for each weekend and I think that’s a huge step forward in this program.”
Forgione said that the team respects that the coaches and players are putting forth equal effort toward becoming a top tier West Coast Conference team.
“They know that we’re here a lot of hours,” said Loomis. “They know that we’re here working and grinding just like they are.”
The Pilots are in the middle of one of the toughest stretches of their season. They will face off against Cal State Northridge on Thursday who is currently riding a 13-game winning streak. The following weekend the Pilots will host BYU who sits at No. 23 in the national rankings.
Although they’re facing a tough stretch at this point in the season Forgione and the Pilots are confident that they can begin to build a winning tradition.
“We need more guys to buy in,” Forgione said. “And when we all buy in — and it’s gonna happen soon — we’ll be pretty deadly in this conference.”
Hunter Jacobson is a sports reporter for The Pilots. He can be reached at jacobsoh19@up.edu or on Twitter @huntre23.
