BYU opens WCC regular-season play at Portland

PROVO, Utah — The Cougars head to Portland this weekend to kick-off West Coast Conference play with the Pilots. The three-game series is scheduled for March 17-19 at Joe Etzel Field. The series opener is Thursday at 6:00 p.m. PDT, with Friday's game at 2:00 p.m. and the final game Saturday at 1:00 p.m. 

BROADCAST PLANS. All three games will be streamed live on the WCC Network and broadcast on the BYU Radio Network —107.9 FM, BYUCougars.com and the BYU Cougars app.

COUGAR REVIEW. BYU is coming off a convincing 10-3 win over rival Utah in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Home runs by Collin Reuter in the second inning and Cole Gambill in the third set the tempo early for the Cougars, who collected 12 hits on the night.

Last weekend the Cougars faced No. 6 ranked Oklahoma State in a three-game series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. BYU took game one of the series with a bases-loaded, two-out grand slam in the fifth inning by Ryan Sepede. The junior from Las Vegas came off the bench and deposited a fastball into the left field seats to pace BYU to an 8-6 victory over the Cowboys. BYU dropped game two of the series in a 3-0 pitching duel on Friday, and lost the rubber match the next day, 8-5.

POWER BALL. The Cougars are 6-2 versus Power Five programs in 2022. In addition to the wins over Oklahoma State and Utah, BYU posted a 9-6 neutral-site win over Ohio State and a series sweep of Arizona State in Phoenix (4-2, 6-5, 19-3). 

PILOT RECAP. Portland (12-4) enters the weekend series having won four-straight. The Pilots swept UC Riverside on the road over the weekend (5-4, 7-6, 10-0) before returning home to knock off Pac-12 rival Washington 5-4 on Tuesday. The Pilots are 4-0 at home with a 3-0 sweep of Creighton and the win over the Huskies.

SERIES HISTORY. BYU and Portland have met 44 times in baseball, with the Cougars holding a 29-15 advantage. The WCC foes last met during the 2021 regular season at BYU on April 8-10. The Pilots won the series (2-1) for the first time ever in Provo. BYU finished the 2021 WCC season in fourth place (15-12), while Portland was fifth (14-13).

BAT CATS. Lead-off hitter Mitch McIntyre paces the Cougars in several statistical categories, including hits (15), doubles (4), walks (10), HBP (5) and on-base percentage (.455). Right fielder Cole Gambill leads BYU in runs (14), RBI (18) and home runs (4), and is second in hits (14), walks (7) and slugging percentage (.509). 

ON THE HILL. BYU’s game-one starter Jack Sterner has started four games for the Cougars. The right-handed sophomore is 0-1 on the season with a 3.66 ERA and 19 strikeouts. Game two starter Janzen Keisel is 2-0 and leads the team with 20.1 innings pitched and strikeouts (25). The freshman righty has a 1.77 ERA and has surrendered just four runs. Game three starter is Ryan Brady who is 1-0 on the year and has appeared in four games with a 3.77 ERA.