Calvin Nagy broke the perfect game for Portland's Matt McCallister when he led off the seventh inning with a single up the middle.
Pilots Shut Out Cavs in Cross-Town Tilt
BOX SCORE - Concordia vs. Portland
PORTLAND, Ore.—With Portland Pilots starter Matt McCallister carrying a perfect game into the seventh inning, the Concordia baseball team could not muster a threat to the Pilots, who topped the Cavs for the second time this season 5-0 on Tuesday.
McCalister threw six perfect innings for the Pilots before the Cavs’ Calvin Nagy led off the seventh with a single up the middle. McCallister finished the game with seven innings of shutout baseball against the Cavs, helping the Pilots become the first team to shut out Concordia this season.
For their part, Concordia threatened to score in the seventh, as Jordan Keeker followed Nagy’s single with one of his own. That put runners on first and second with no outs and the Cavs only down 2-0 at that point. However, McCalister got Carl Beckert to hit a grounder to short that got Keeker out at second, then got Sean Myrom to ground into a double play to end the inning.
After that, Portland added two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a relatively commanding 4-0 considering the quality of pitching in the game.
Concordia came out fighting again in the eighth, though, with Ryan Rodriguez leading off the inning with a single to center. However, after a pitching change, the Pilots got Rodriguez out at second off a fielder’s choice, then ended the inning with another double play.
Finally, after the Pilots tacked on a run in the bottom of the eighth, Portland’s Owen Jones struck out the Cavaliers’ side in the ninth to close out the game.
Overall, the Pilots dominated offensively, out-hitting the Cavs 14-3 in the game.
The Cavs’ defense kept them in the game early, as the Pilots stranded three runners in scoring position in the first six innings after they had reached second or third with less than two outs.
Jared Young started on the mound for the Cavaliers and pitched well, only giving up two runs through five innings against the NCAA Division I Pilots. Still, Young wound up with the loss for the Cavs due to the gem from McCallister.
Next, Concordia travels to Menlo College for its first road conference series of the season. Concordia will begin the series against Menlo with a single game Friday, March 9 at 2:30 p.m. The teams will then play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12 p.m. before wrapping up the series with a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.