Huskies get home-run-happy in victory against Portland

After a convincing sweep against USC this weekend, the UW baseball team made an important ripple on the national scene and followed up with a sweep of a different kind.

The Huskies (29-16, 8-7 Pac-10) cracked the national rankings this week at No. 30 as they made their way south to Portland to complete a season-long four-game sweep by winning 9-2.

UW continued its offensive hot streak on the strength of home runs by senior outfielder Andy Lentz, junior outfielder Kyle Conley, freshman first baseman Troy Scott, and freshman outfielder Sean Meehan, while sophomore left-handed pitcher Ben Guidos improved to 3-0. He gave up just two runs on five hits in five innings.

The Huskies shot ahead, 2-0, in the second inning when Scott hit a two-run home run — his sixth of the season — off Pilots starter Brennan Thorpe. UW made it 3-0 later in the inning on a Bradley Boyer single and the Huskies led from then on.

Even though those three second-inning runs were all the team really needed, the offense made things dramatic when they scored two runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Conley hit a two-run home run in the fifth frame, Meehan hit another two-run dinger in the sixth and Lentz added a solo shot in the seventh.

Three other UW pitchers were given work on the mound, as right-handed junior Jason Erickson, senior Elliott Cribby and freshman Forrest Snow threw four scoreless innings on only one hit.

The victory marks the fifth in a row for the Huskies and the fourth time in the last five games that they have scored more than nine runs.

UW will look to continue scoring runs with solid starting pitching this weekend when Washington State makes its way across the Cascades to Husky Ballpark in the baseball Apple Cup.