SACRAMENTO -- After field conditions at Dobbins Stadium forced a change in venue, the Sacramento State baseball team looks to bounce back from a rough weekend in Southern California, hosting Causeway rival UC Davis in a midweek clash at John Smith Field on Tuesday (March 7). First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.

PLAY BALL…
WHAT: UC Davis (5-4) at Sacramento State (6-4)
WHEN: Tuesday, March 7, 2023
TIME: 4 p.m.
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
STADIUM: John Smith Field
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
BUY TICKETS: HornetSports.com

ON THE MOUND...
UC Davis: RHP Ian Torpey (0-0, 3.86 ERA)
Sacramento State: RHP Kevin Haynes (0-0, 9.00 ERA)

UNMARK YOUR CALENDARS…
Recently added games against UC Davis (March 6) and San Francisco (March 8) scheduled for this coming week have been rescheduled for later in the year. The April 11 game against the Aggies, which was originally scheduled for Sacramento and moved to Davis, Calif., has now been moved back to John Smith Field on the same date. Keep an eye on HornetSports.com and the baseball team's social media channels for any further schedule updates as they become available.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES…
UC Davis enters Tuesday's midweek clash with a 5-4 overall record after securing its first series win of the season by taking 2-of-3 from Seattle U over the weekend at home… The Aggies have also split a four-game series against another WAC opponent in Utah Valley to open the year, then split a pair of weather-affected games against Santa Clara… Six of the team's nine games thus far have been played at home… Junior infielder Alex Gouveia leads all regulars with a .405 average and a 1.112 OPS, scoring eight runs, smashing seven doubles, and driving in three… Junior Jack Gallagher has provided the pop, slugging a team-high three home runs and sharing the team lead with nine RBI... Tuesday's scheduled starter, right-hander Ian Torpey, is 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in two relief appearances this season, throwing 2.1 innings combined.

AGAINST UC DAVIS…
According to available records dating back to the 1950 season, the Hornets hold a 142-89-1 lead in the all-time series with the Aggies, including a 44-35 advantage in the series in the program's Division I history… Sacramento State has won the last four consecutive meetings dating back to 2017, but the two programs haven't met one another on the diamond since the 2019 season when the Hornets posted an 8-2 victory at home… Three of the last four meetings have been played in Sacramento… All told, Sacramento State holds an 86-37 lead in games played in Sacramento, with the location of five games in the series unknown… The Hornets have won four of the last five games at John Smith Field, with the Aggies' last win coming on May 10, 2016 by a 7-1 score.

CONFERENCE CALL…
Sacramento State has faced all 11 current Big West Conference baseball playing members, with the majority of those contests (232) coming against UC Davis… The Hornets have won the last four in a row against Big West schools, including a three-game sweep of nationally ranked Long Beach State in the second series of the 2022 season that helped propel Sacramento State into the national rankings… Prior to last year's series against The Beach, the Hornets hadn't faced a Big West opponent since losing 2-of-3 to UC Irvine on the road in 2020 prior to the pandemic canceling the remainder of that season.

LAST TIME OUT…
The Hornets' trip to Southern California resulted in three losses, but Sacramento State showed fight against a pair of "Power 5" opponents, dropping one-run contests to USC (8-7) and nationally ranked UCLA (3-2) before falling to Tulane (14-6). The Hornets held a lead late against the Trojans only to see the host team rally for three runs in seventh and bring back a potential game-tying home run with a leaping grab. A day later, Sacramento State jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the Bruins in the fourth before UCLA answered with three runs over the next two innings and use its bullpen to hold the Hornets to just one hit over the final three innings. Against the Green Wave, Sacramento State erased an early 5-2 deficit, but could not hold off the Tulane bats, which scored in every inning but the ninth en route to the win.

LOOKING AHEAD…
Following Tuesday's clash against Davis, the Hornets open a run of eight more contest at home with a four-game series against Central Michigan beginning with single games on Thursday (March 9) and Friday (March 10) at 4 p.m., followed by a Saturday (March 11) doubleheader at 1 p.m.

HORNET SHORT HOPS…
• Tuesday's clash with UC Davis marks the second midweek game of the season for Sacramento State, which defeated Nevada, 9-4, in its weather delayed "midweek opener" back on March 2.
• UC Davis head coach Tommy Nicholson served two stints on the Sacramento State coaching staff under Head Coach Reggie Christiansen in 2011-12 and 2017.
• Nicholson is one of three former Christiansen assistants to hold Division I head coaching positions along with Jake McKinley, who is in his first year at Nevada, and Steve Holm, who is in his fifth year at Illinois State.
• The Hornets have won four of their last five midweek games dating back to last season.
• Freshman Wehiwa Aloy continued a torrid start to his collegiate career, extending his team-best hitting streak to 10 games after the trip to Southern California.
• Aloy's string of 10 consecutive games with a hit to start the year is just one shy of Jorge Bojorquez's 11-game hitting streak that kicked-off the 2022 season and two shy of Cesar Valero's team-long 13-game hitting streak from March 11 - April 2 last year.
• According to schools that responded, Aloy's 10-game hitting streak is tied for longest streak by a freshman this year with Auburn's Ike Irish, and tied for seventh to start the year behind Auburn's Bryson Ware, Louisiana's Heath Hood, and a trio from Wofford: Marshall Toole, Ryan Halanie, and Brice Martinez, who all have 11-game hitting streaks. entering the week.
• Junior Josh Rolling just keeps rolling, extending a hitting streak of his own to five games following the trip to Southern California, which included three straight games with 2-or-more hits.
• Rolling tied his career high with three hits in the finale against Tulane on Sunday, matching his three-hit game against Seattle U on April 16 last season.
• Rolling now has five multi-hit games, sharing the team lead in that category with Aloy, who had two hits in the finale against the Green Wave.
• The Reno, Nev., native went 7-for-11 (.636) in the three games in Southern California with a pair of doubles, and a home run, and is batting .500 (10-for-20) with four multi-hit games and five extra-base hits during his five-game hitting streak.
• After missing the first six games of the year recovering from injury, junior Gunner Gouldsmith has been on fire at the plate, collecting hits in each of his first four games to start the year, batting .625 (5-for-8) with three RBI — including a 2-for-3 day against Tulane for his first multi-hit game of the season.
• Freshman Jaxon Byrd became the latest Hornet to collect his first career hit, knocking a single against Tulane.
• Sacramento State has been homer happy as of late, slugging at least one home run in each of its last six games and eight of its 10 games overall — including a season-high three in one inning in the win over Nevada on March 2.
• One of those home runs came off the bat of senior Martin Vincelli-Simard on Sunday against Tulane, which was the 20th of his career — just three shy of breaking into the all-time top 10.
• Five different players have accounted for the team's last five home runs: Garet Crenshaw (3/2 vs. Nevada - the first of his Hornet career), JP Smith (3/3 at USC - the first of his career), Josh Rolling (3/3 at USC), Jeffery Heard (3/4 at UCLA), and Martin Vincelli-Simard (3/5 vs. Tulane).
• The Hornets have also smacked at least one double in each of its last five — including a season high-tying three in the second game against St. Thomas on Feb. 25 and three more at USC on March 3 during that run — and has collected a double in all but one game this year.
• The five-run fifth inning at USC that gave the Hornets a 7-5 advantage was its highest-scoring inning of the season and the third inning of four-or-more runs in a game in 2023.
• Junior right-hander Jasper Nelson has been one of the most reliable arms out of the bullpen for Head Coach Reggie Christiansen, allowing just four hits and striking out five over 8.0 scoreless innings of work.
• Junior left-hander Max Pettey has been equally as impressive, allowing just two hits over 5.0 innings of relief, striking out three.