BILLINGS, Mont. - The Montana State University Billings Baseball team hits the road to Portland to take part in the Porter Park Classic.  MSU-Billings will be joined by host Concordia University-Portland, Lewis-Clark State University and the University of British Columbia.

The Yellowjackets (1-7) are coming off a series against Dixie State University, in which the Jackets were competitive in all four games, but Dixie won the series 3-1. 

MSU-Billings is being led by Brad Birch and Matt Eames.  Birch is the reigning Great Northwest Athletic Conference player of the week after his performance against Dixie.  He went 6-for-14 with two doubles, a home run, five runs scored, three RBI and 11 total bases. In Game 2, Birch's seventh-inning solo home run proved to be the decisive factor in MSUB's first win of 2014, 5-4 over DSU. Birch also walked once and was hit by a pitch once, pushing his on-base percentage to .500 (8-for-16) on the week. The senior struck out just twice while slugging .786, and he also handled all 18 chances at third base – three put outs and 15 assists.  

For the season so far, Birch is batting .269 has hit three doubles and one homerun for five RBIs.  He has a fielding percentage of .862 and five put outs with a team leading 20 assists.   

Eames is the GNAC's reigning pitcher of the week for his performance against Dixie as well. He tossed seven stellar innings for the Yellowjackets in game 1, logging a no-decision in a 2-1 loss to the Red Storm. Eames allowed one run and three hits with one walk and three strikeouts.  He did not allow a hit until the fourth inning, and lowered his season ERA to 4.09 with the performance.  Eames has 11.0 innings pitched on the year allowing 12 hits, five runs allowed and five strikeouts. 

Brody Miller leads MSUB in batting average, hitting .500 on the season.  He has 14 hits, two homeruns and leads the team in RBIs with eight.  Other key contributors include, Trevor Nix (.350), Steven DeYoung (.231) and Luke Reinschmidt (.200). 

Closer Jake Mills has the lowest ERA on the team with a 1.29.  Through 7.0 innings he allowed seven hits, just one run and has struck out six.  Jake Campeau has struck out the most opposition batters, 15 in 9.2 innings.   He has an era of 7.45 and has allowed 11 hits and eight runs.    

"This is a big week for our team," head coach Rob Bishop said.  "Six more games to prepare for our GNAC opener at Western Oregon.  We are working to find the best combinations in our lineup and on the mound.  We definitely made strides in the Dixie series and played much better baseball.  I know our best baseball is ahead of us and we will continue working daily to improve."

The Yellowjackets will first take on Lewis-Clark State (7-1) on Friday Feb. 28 at 11:00 AM.  LSCS swept MSUB two weeks ago 4-0 in their series.  The Warriors most recently completed a series against Western Oregon University and won the series 3-1, but lost their first game of the year in game number three 6-1. 

MSUB will then play host Concordia on the 28th as well scheduled for 2:00pm.  The Cavaliers (7-2) also played Western Oregon as their most recent game and beat the Wolves 6-3.

MSU-Billings finishes pool play against British Columbia (4-3) who most recently beat Menlo 5-0. 

The classic concludes Sunday with the number three finisher facing the number four finisher and number one playing number two.  

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