The Portland Pilots baseball team is set to begin its 2026 season with a three-game series against the Purdue Boilermakers in Sugar Land, Texas. The games will take place at Constellation Field from February 13 to 15, with the first pitch scheduled for Friday at 2 p.m. PST. While there will be no video stream available for the series, fans can listen to a radio broadcast on the Stretch Portal and follow live statistics and audio through PortlandPilots.com.
This matchup marks the first meeting between Portland and Purdue in baseball. Purdue finished last season with a 31-23 overall record and an 11-19 mark in Big Ten play, while Portland concluded its campaign at 22-30 overall and placed fifth in the West Coast Conference (WCC) with a 13-11 record.
Probable starting pitchers for the Pilots include Kaden Segel, Morgan Codron, and Trey Swygart. For Purdue, Cole Van Assen, Zach Erdman, and Jarvis Evans are expected to start across the three games.
Portland’s roster features several returning players who received All-WCC honors last year. Jonas Salk was named to the All-WCC First Team after hitting 13 home runs—the most by a Pilot since 2008—and posting strong numbers across multiple offensive categories. Tyler Howard earned second-team recognition, while Brady Bean and Cody Nitowitz received honorable mentions. Trey Swygart made both the freshman team and contributed as a two-way player.
Bean played every game last season, ranking among conference leaders in hits and RBI. Howard recorded a .379 batting average—second-best in the WCC—and reached base safely in 32 consecutive games.
The Pilots led their conference in walks drawn, strikeout-to-walk ratio, WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), shutouts, and fewest walks allowed per nine innings last season. Nationally, they ranked among the top teams for double plays turned per game and limiting walks allowed per nine innings.
This year’s preseason polls project Portland to finish fourth in the WCC. Salk was selected for his first appearance on the All-WCC Preseason Team.
Portland returns 22 players from last year’s squad—including four who earned All-WCC honors—and adds 19 newcomers comprised of freshmen and transfers. Notable returners include Cole Katayama-Stall, who hit nine home runs as a freshman; Coleman Hollabaugh; Nolan Miller; Frankie Rutigliano; Gage Bruce; Aaron Louis; Carter Gaston; Kaden Segel; Nolan Umlandt; Morgan Codron; Kaden Starr; Callum Young; Logan Anderson; JT Landwehr; Ky Hoskinson; Quin Dufort; Cade Gehlen; Ethan Matsuoka; and Jake Allen.
On the pitching staff, Gaston threw more innings than any other returning Pilot last season and previously earned WCC Pitcher of the Year honors after an outstanding performance in 2024. Segel led all returning pitchers with three saves last year.
Among new additions are pitcher Trey Newmann—a transfer from TCU who previously played at California—as well as redshirt freshmen Troy Osborne (Sacramento State) and Leo Cote (Oregon State). The incoming class also includes several Canadian players from Okotoks Dawgs Academy along with Oregon and Washington high school standouts such as Grady Keljo, Carter Stewart, Connor Parry, Aidan Rice, Logan Nakamura, Alex Via, Isaac Pfeifer, Dakota Chun, Joe Fagan, Jacob Bellamy, and Ernie Whelan.
Head coach Geoff Loomis enters his eleventh season leading Portland’s program with over 230 career wins—the fourth-most in school history—and is joined by associate head coach Trey Watt (pitching coach), director of player development Jarvis Gomes (fifth year), assistant coach Ben Patacsil (a former graduate assistant), Jake Holcroft (assistant coach), among others. Holcroft holds multiple program records including games played and hits.
Purdue comes into this series under seventh-year head coach Greg Goff with three players named to their conference’s preseason watch list: Dylan Drake—a Sacramento City College transfer—Aaron Manias—a Nebraska transfer—and Cole Van Assen who is slated to start Friday’s opener on the mound.
Fans interested in attending future home events can secure tickets via PortlandPilots.com/Tickets or by downloading the Portland Pilots App. Information about group packages is available by emailing pilotsboxoffice@up.edu.
Supporters wishing to contribute financially can make tax-deductible donations online to help University of Portland Athletics’ student-athletes compete at high levels both academically and athletically.
For ongoing updates about University of Portland athletics programs—including news coverage—visit PortlandPilots.com or follow official social media channels on Twitter/X (@PortlandPilots), Facebook (facebook.com/portlandpilots), or Instagram (@portlandpilots).
