Sports

REGULAR SEASON CLOSES WITH HOME-AND-HOME SERIES AGAINST SAN JOSE STATE



SACRAMENTO — Having already clinched the No. 2 seed for next week’s Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Arizona, the Sacramento State baseball team still has some business to attend to before the postseason begins, closing out the regular season with a three-game series against Bay Area rival San Jose State. The Hornets host the Spartans on Thrusday (May 19) at 6 p.m. at John Smith Field, before the scene shifts to Excite Ballpark in San Jose for Friday (May 20) and Saturday (May 21), with first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m. and 4:05 p.m., respectively, on those days.

PLAY BALL…
WHAT: San Jose State (27-25) vs. Sacramento State (28-23)
WHEN: Thursday-Saturday, May 19-21, 2022
TIMES: 6 p.m. PT  / 6:05 p.m. PT / 4:05 p.m. PT
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif. (Thursday) & San Jose, Calif. (Fri. & Sat.)
STADIUM: John Smith Field (1,200) & Excite Ballpark (4,200)
WATCH: ESPN+ (Subscription Required) (Thurs.) – Game 1 … Mountain West Digital Network (Fri. & Sat.) – Game 2 | Game 3
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com – Game 1 | SJSUStats.com – Game 2 | Game 3
GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | San Jose State Baseball

ON THE MOUND…
THURSDAY: RHP
Eli Saul (6-0, 3.45 ERA) vs. RHP Jonathan Clark (1-4, 5.97 ERA)
FRIDAY: TBA vs. LHP Ethan Ross (0-4, 8.74 ERA)
SATURDAY: TBA vs. TBA

IN THE RANKINGS…
Neither Sacramento State, nor San Jose State, are ranked this week… The Hornets were ranked as high as No. 20 in the nation by Baseball America on Feb. 28 following a 7-0 start, while also ranking No. 23 in the D1Baseball.com poll, No. 24 by the NCBWA, and No. 25 in the USA Today coaches poll. It marked the first time in the program’s Division I history that Sacramento State has appeared in those respective rankings after the Hornets debuted in the national polls for the first time as a Division I program in 2021, coming in at No. 24 in back-to-back weeks in the Collegiate Baseball poll on April 5 and 12.

SCOUTING SAN JOSE STATE…
The Spartans enter the week with a 27-25 overall record and a 16-14 mark in Mountain West Conference play, dropping 2-of-3 at league rival Air Force over the weekend, but closing out the series with a dominating 30-9 win in the finale on Sunday… Of the team’s 27 victories, 18 of those have come at home, while the Spartans are 9-16 on the road in 2022… Hitting .281 as a team, SJSU is led by sophomore outfielder Robert Hamchuk, who is batting .376 on the year with 52 runs, 10 home runs and 35 RBI… Sophomore utility Charles McAdoo leads all Spartans with 58 RBI to go with 12 home runs and a .360 average… The San Jose State pitching staff sports a 7.15 ERA, striking out 393 against 350 walks while allowing opponents to hit .293 on the season.

AGAINST THE SPARTANS…
San Jose State leads the all-time series with Sacramento State by a 42-28 count according to records that date back to 1986… The Hornets have won three of the last four meetings and are 6-4 in the last 10 meetings with the Spartans… The two teams haven’t met since a 7-2 Sacramento State victory at home back on March 19, 2019… This weekend marks the first games played in San Jose between the two programs since 2012 when the Hornets took 2-of-3 in late April of that year… Sacramento State is 20-16 against SJSU at home, but just 7-25 on the road.

LAST TIME OUT…
Sacramento State capped off a perfect 4-0 week with a three-game sweep of visiting Utah Valley, using a five-run eighth inning to post a come-from-behind 8-7 win in the opener, before taking the final two games by the scores of 5-2 and 7-2. 

SEED PLANTED…
A win on Sunday against Utah Valley not only gave the Hornets their first league sweep of the year, but clinched the No. 2 seed in next week’s WAC Tournament in Arizona — the second time in the last three events (the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the pandemic) that Sacramento State has been the second seed and its highest since entering the 2014 tournament at the top seed.

MAGIC NUMBER DOWN TO TWO…
Two more wins and the Hornets will continue an impressive run that will see them win 30 games for a 10th consecutive season (the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign not withstanding) — something no other Division I program in the state of California has accomplished every year since 2012.

FOUR!…
Heads up, the Hornets are rolling again. A win at Fresno State and a sweep of Utah Valley has Sacramento State riding a four-game winning streak into this week’s series against San Jose State — the third time that the Hornets have put together four consecutive victories and the first such streak since April 16-23 when they defeated Seattle U, Pacific, and Dixie State (twice).

TRèS BIEN!…
Riding a streak of five consecutive multi-hit games (more on that later), junior infielder Martin Vincelli-Simard was named the Western Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week on May 16. It is his first career weekly honor and the second offensive honor of the year for a Hornet since Dawsen Bacho on April 18, while freshman right-hander Colin Hunter was named the pitcher of the week back on Feb. 21.

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE…
Sacramento State is the lone remaining Division I school that has not lost a series opener this season. UConn was 11-0 entering last weekend before the Huskies fell at home to Xavier to end their run.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS…
Sacramento State’s 8-7 win to start the series against Utah Valley last week kept the Hornets undefeated in series openers this year at 13-0 (including 10-0 in WAC play), outscoring opponents by a 104-49 count in those contests. That streak grows to 16 straight wins in series openers dating back to a four-game series against conference rival California Baptist on May 7 of last year, and last lost a series opener on April 30 against Grand Canyon. 

OPENING A CAN…
The Hornet offense has been humming to start a weekend series, batting a robust .300 as a team while the pitching staff boasts a 3.37 ERA in those 13 series openers, holding opposing hitters to a .222 combined average and striking out 96 in 115 innings, while burning opposing arms to the tune of a 7.35 ERA. The bullpen has also been stellar, as nine pitchers have combined to allow just nine runs in 39.1 innings of work in those games for a 2.06 ERA and a better than 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (38 strikeouts, 10 walks).

NO HITS FOR YOU…
Hornet pitching did well to miss a lot of barrels this past weekend against Utah Valley, holding the Wolverines to just 14 hits and a .152 average in the three-game set compared to 28 knocks for the home team. It was the lowest series average for a Sacramento State opponent since Chicago State was limited to just nine hits and a .136 average in a three-game Hornet sweep on April 6-8, 2018.

COMEBACK KIDS…
The Hornets’ rally from down four runs in the series opener against Utah Valley en route to an 8-7 victory marked the fourth time this year that Sacramento State has come back from down that many runs to win, doing so against Northern Illinois (Feb. 20), Long Beach State (Feb. 27), and California Baptist (May 1). The four comebacks are the largest since Sacramento State rallied from a 5-0 deficit against San Francisco on May 15 of last season en route to a 7-6 victory.

HE’S A GAMER…
With his appearance in the second game of the Utah Valley series, senior Steven Moretto collected his 234th career game played, breaking Scotty Burcham’s mark of 233 set from 2012-15. Moretto enters this week’s games having made 230 career starts, standing one shy of Burcham’s record in that category as well.

SIX AND OH!…
With his complete game in the opener against Grand Canyon on May 6, Saul improved to 6-0 on the year — the first Hornet pitcher to open a season with a 6-0 record since Ty Nichols finished with the same record in 2015. With a win in his next start, Saul would become the first Sacramento State hurler to start 7-0 since 1993 when Roland DeLaMaza won seven-in-a-row en route to an 11-2 mark that year.

QUALITY YOU CAN COUNT ON…
Sophomore right-hander Eli Saul leads the Hornets with seven “quality starts” (six innings, three earned runs or fewer) in 12 starts this season, posting a 5-0 record with a 2.17 ERA in those outings, allowing 11 earned on 33 hits over 45.2 innings, with 38 strikeouts and a .205 (33-for-161) average against. 

NO WORK AND NO PLAY…
Make Jack a dull boy. Junior right-hander Jack Zalasky has been anything but dormant as of late, posting five saves in his last seven appearances, striking out 14 against only three walks over his last 11.1 innings of work.

SAVE TONIGHT…
Zalasky’s save in game two against Utah Valley pushed his season total to 10, ranking him third in the Western Athletic Conference and No. 15 in the NCAA as of May 16. The 10 saves are the most in a single season since Tanner Dalton, who ranks tied for third on the school’s career list with 16 saves, finished with 10 in 2018, while Zalasky’s 14 career saves are fifth all-time behind Dalton and Michael Penbera (1999-01), who each finished with 16 in their careers.

ALLEZ LES QUEBECOIS!…
The team’s hottest hitter in the month of May, Vincelli-Simard is batting .424 (14-for-33) with nine runs, seven doubles, a triple, two home runs, and 10 RBI, slugging .879 for the month and adding six walks for a .500 on-base percentage. Currently riding a career high-tying six-game hitting streak, nearly half of his 26 hits (12) have come in his last five contests — all multi-hit games after having only one before the streak (2-for-3 at New Mexico State on April 9) — and he has driven in a run in each of his last seven contests to account for 10 of his 23 RBI this year.

HAVE YOU HEARD?…
Vincelli-Simard hasn’t been the only Hornet swinging a hot bat as freshman Jeffery Heard enters the final weekend of the regular season on a career-best five-game hitting streak, batting .350 (7-for-20), with three runs scored, four doubles, and six RBI.

KEEP ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING…
Sophomore Josh Rolling has reached base safely in each of his last 12 games — the longest active streak by a Hornet and the seventh such run to reach double digits this year. Rolling has hit safely in eight of those games with 10 runs and five RBI, while also drawing nine walks and twice hit by a pitch.

TREY’S DAY…
Junior right-hander Trey Goodrich, a transfer from South Mountain CC in Phoenix, Ariz., picked up his frst career Division I win with two scoreless innings in finale against UVU, allowing just one hit and striking out a pair in the 7-2 victory.

WE DEMAND… A SACRIFICE!…
When all you need is a fly ball to score a run, Sacramento State is your team. The Hornets enter this weekend’s games leading the nation in sacrifice flies with 41, out-pacing Coastal Carolina and Texas Southern by five for the top spot in the NCAA. Thanks to one in game two against Utah Valley, Steven Moretto has taken over the NCAA lead with his 11 sacrifice flies, edging out the 10 by New Orleans’ Anthony Herron, Jr., and believed to be the most in the Hornets’ Division I history.

50 IS NIFTY…
Home runs by Jorge Bojorquez and Martin Vincelli-Simard last weekend gave the Hornets 52 long balls on the year, matching last year’s 57-game total and marking the third time in the last four full seasons that Sacramento State has reached the 50 homer plateau. One more ball clearing the fence this season and Sacramento State will post its highest single-season total since they slugged 63 in 2009 — which stands as the fourth-highest total since 1979.

BIG INNINGS…
Sacramento State’s seven-run third inning at Fresno State on May 10 was The Hornets’ second-biggest inning of the year, trailing only the 10-run fourth against Houston Baptist on March 4. Coupled with its five-run eighth inning rally against Utah Valley on May 13, it marked the 19th time that the Hornets have scored at least four runs in an inning in 2022.

SHOW ME SOME GLOVE…
It’s by the slimmest of margins, but Sacramento State enters the week a close second in the WAC in the field — and ranking No. 25 in the nation — in fielding percentage at .977 on the year while committing the second-fewest errors in the league with 42. The Hornets also rank No. 49 in the nation with 39 double plays turned while standing No. 72 in the NCAA with 0.76 per game.

STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY SIR!…
Sacramento State is 19-6 when scoring first this season, outscoring opponents by a 153-120 count through the first four innings, compared to a 187-151 deficit through the final five frames. The third inning has been the Hornets’ best this season, scoring 54 runs in that frame while holding the opposition to just 24.

SIX WAYS TO VICTORY…
Must be their magic number. The Hornets are 19-4 this season when they score six runs or more, but just 10-19 when they fall under that number.

DON’T RUN ON DYLAN…
Would-be base stealers may want to think twice with McPhillips behind the dish as the senior has thrown out 10 runners trying to steal against him this year — a total that ranks tied for second in the WAC behind only Dixie State’s Kaden Hollow (17). The 10 runners extinguished by McPhillips have tied his career high set as a freshman in 2018 and are just one back of Dawsen Bacho‘s 11 last season — which were the most by a Sacramento State catcher since Gunner Pollman erased 30 would-be base stealers in 2016.

HE’S NUMBER TWO! HE’S NUMBER TWO!…
And we mean that in a good way. With his team’s win at Saint Mary’s on April 26, Head Coach Reggie Christiansen picked up win No. 359 at the helm of the Hornets, moving him past Cal Boyes (358 in 17 seasons in 1957 and 1960-75) for the second-most wins in school history behind John Smith and his 882 career victories in 32 seasons (1979-2010) as head coach. Earlier this season, Christiansen won the 450th game of his coaching career in the opener at Long Beach State on Feb. 25, when you include his totals for one season at his alma mater, Menlo College, and four years at South Dakota State.

WINNER, WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER…
In all, 11 different Hornets have accounted for game-winning RBI this season, after Jorge Bojorquez‘s game-winner in the finale against Utah Valley, while Cesar Valero leads all Hornets with five on the year. Meanwhile, Dawsen Bacho‘s two game-winning runs against the Wolverines gave him a team-high four, while Josh Walker became the 12th Hornet to score a winning run.



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