A Portland-area native and standout college athlete leading their team as they chase a conference title with the last name Brink. Who comes to mind?
If Cameron Brink, the former Stanford basketball player turned Los Angeles Spark in the WNBA came to mind, you’d technically be right. But the Rose City proved big enough for two Brinks — who are not related — to thrive, with Nick Brink of the University of Portland baseball team tearing it up on the Bluff as the ace of the Pilots’ staff.
Brink stuck in the same town he’s lived in for his whole life to continue his collegiate career after being a standout at Cleveland High School, earning First Team All-Conference honors twice in four years on the Warriors’ varsity squad.
“I’ve loved (staying here),” Brink said. “I was born and raised in Southeast Portland ... Staying close to home has probably been the best thing I could’ve done for myself in hindsight. It’s great because I get to see a lot of my family regularly.”
Coming out of high school, Brink — the valedictorian of his graduating class and a computer science major — was pursued by Ivy League schools as well as Portland. He said the decision to choose the school on the Bluff over heading to the east coast was easy for him after the amount of effort and time Portland put into his recruiting process.
“University of Portland was the school coming to my summer games and communicating with me,” Brink said about his recruitment. “I just felt like they really wanted me to be a Pilot ... My whole thought process was (they’re) giving me the time and effort and I’m not even (committed yet), what are (they) going to do for me when I do become a member of that pitching staff.”
The homework the Pilots did on Brink has paid dividends despite a slow start to his collegiate career. After working out of the bullpen as a true freshman in 2021 and posting a less-than-ideal 9.00 ERA in five appearances, Brink went down with a torn UCL and required Tommy John surgery. The procedure held him out of the 2022 season entirely as he worked to recover from the injury. But since getting fully healthy, Brink has been one of the most dominant pitchers in the West Coast Conference.
In 2023, Brink started out as a bullpen arm before joining the weekend rotation midway through the season. He made 13 appearances with eight starts as a redshirt sophomore, going a perfect 6-0 in decisions and posting a team best 2.02 ERA. The performance earned him First Team All-WCC honors and certainly put him on the radar of programs around the country.
In the modern age of the transfer portal, Brink could have easily packed his bags and departed Portland to pursue other opportunities like so many other athletes did. It wasn’t something he had to think twice about.
“I never once considered the transfer portal,” Brink said. “This is the place for me, this is the place that wanted me, this is the place that gave me my chance. I’m going to stay here.”
A portion of the reason for Brink’s success in 2023 was the addition of a new pitch to his arsenal. Brink began developing a cutter ahead of the 2023 season, a hybrid between a standard fastball and a slider. For the right-handed Brink, the pitch breaks to his glove side, running in on left-handed batters or away from right-handers.
“He added (that) cutter and it was a complete difference maker for him,” Portland head coach Geoff Loomis said. “He’s always had velocity ... But now he’s got (that pitch), a 93-mph fastball and he throws a changeup right on right. If you’ve got a guy who can throw (that combination), you’re going to have some success.”
With another year of development on the pitch, which Brink says he throws between 85 and 86-mph, the results have gotten even better.
While Brink’s ERA has risen to a 3.42 and he sits at a 6-4 record on the year, his strikeout rate has gotten even higher. In 2023, Brink punched out a hair under 25% of all batters he faced across 58 innings of work. Flash forward to 2024 and Brink has 71 innings under his belt, fanning opponents at a 30.1% clip.
Of 18 qualified pitchers in the WCC, Brink is tops in both innings pitched and strikeout rate. The performance is lining him up as another slam-dunk choice to be a First Team All-WCC selection for the second year in a row and as a frontrunner for the conference’s Pitcher of the Year award.
With Brink leading the charge, the Pilots currently sit at 24-17 on the season and 10-5 in conference play. They’re in third place in the WCC, three games back of second place Gonzaga and five behind leader San Diego. With three weeks left in the regular season, the Pilots are in line to get a seat at the table in the WCC tournament as they hunt to make their first NCAA regional since 1991.
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