SACRAMENTO -- For the first time in history, a Hornet will play in Major League Baseball's showcase event as former Sacramento State baseball standout Rhys Hoskins will take the field with his Philadelphia Phillies teammates against the Houston Astros in the 2022 World Series beginning tonight (Oct. 28) in Houston.
Hoskins, a letter winner for Sacramento State from 2012-14, helped lead Philadelphia into the World Series for the first time since 2009 as the Phillies go in search for their first World Series championship since 2008.
The World Series opens with games one and two in Houston on Oct. 28-29, then moves to Philadelphia for games three, four, and five on Oct. 31, Nov. 1, and Nov. 2. If necessary, games six and seven will be in Houston on Nov. 4-5.
He hit .246 with 30 home runs and 79 RBI in 156 games during the regular season, adding 81 runs scored and 33 doubles to go along with a .462 slugging percentage. After going hitless in the wild card round against St. Louis, Hoskins finished with four hits, a double, a home run, and four RBI in the division series against Atlanta, and slugged four home runs and drove in seven during the league championship series against San Diego, amassing a 1.189 OPS that helped pace the Phillies the pennant.
In game four against the Padres, he became only the sixth player in franchise history with a multihomer game in the postseason, slugging a two-run shot that halved a 4-0 San Diego lead and, later, slugging another two-run home run that tied the game at 6-6 en route to an eventual 10-6 victory.
One day later, he staked the Phillies to an early 2-0 lead with another long ball in the third inning of the pennant clinching 4-3 victory.
"It's a dream," Hoskins, the longest-tenured position player on the Philadelphia roster, told the media on the field afterward. "This organization is the one that believed in me and gave me an opportunity to impact the city of Philadelphia in any way I could."
Hoskins, who was taken in the fifth round of the 2014 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by Philadelphia, was a Louisville Slugger All-American and the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a junior, hitting .319 with a league-best 12 home runs, 18 doubles, and 53 RBI that year. He helped lead the Hornets to a 40-24 overall record, a WAC Tournament title, and the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in its Division I history.
The WAC's freshman of the year and an all-conference second team selection in 2012, Hoskins hit a team-high .353 with 44 runs scored and 53 RBI while slugging 10 home runs during Sacramento State's run to a share of the league's regular-season title.
He continues to rank tied for fourth on the school's career list for doubles ( 49), is ninth in home runs (25), and tied for seventh in RBI (128).
