SACRAMENTO -- Every Hornet starter finished with a hit and eight different batters drove in runs on the night as Sacramento State opened its final regular season Western Athletic Conference series with a 13-6 victory over visiting Utah Tech on Thursday night at John Smith Field.
The Hornets won their third straight game overall, improving to 28-26 overall and 12-16 in WAC play with the victory. The Trailblazers, who slugged four home runs to account for their six runs on the night, fell to 13-37 overall and 8-20 in league.
Freshman Wehiwa Aloy finished 3-for-5 at the plate with three runs scored, his 14th home run of the season and a pair of RBI. Cesar Valero and Garet Crenshaw added a pair of two-hit games as part of a 14-hit attack — which included eight extra-base hits. Among those eight extra-base hits were three triples, marking the first time that the Hornets have accomplished that feat since last April against Saint Mary's.
Junior left-hander Max Pettey (4-1) and sophomore left-hander Noah Lucchesi combined to strike out 10 Utah Tech batters on the night, with Pettey collecting five over the first five innings and Lucchesi nailing down his first save of the year with five strikeouts over the final four innings.
The Trailblazers were the first on the board thanks to a two-run home run by Tyson Fisher, but the Hornets quickly answered in the home half, taking advantage of an error that extended the inning. Aloy reached on an error and Martin Vincelli-Simard walked to put a pair on before a fly ball that should have ended the inning brought Jorge Bojorquez to the plate.
Bojorquez wasted little time, sending the second pitch he saw to right field for his first triple of the year, driving both home to tie the game.
Sacramento State then exploded for seven runs in the second to nearly put the game out of reach, sending 11 batters to the plate in the process. Back-to-back walks to Valero and Crenshaw, followed by a sacrifice, put two on for Gunner Gouldsmith, who bounced a single past the drawn-in infield to break the tie and give the Hornets the lead for good.
Following a pitching change, Aloy tripled to the wall in centerfield, scoring Gouldsmith all the way from first, and Vincelli-Simard followed with a sacrifice fly to left for the 6-2 advantage.
JP Smith kept the train rolling with a bloop single down the right field line and went all the way to third thanks to a pair of wild pitches. Walks to Bojorquez and Jeffery Heard loaded the bases and Smith was able to score on another wild pitch for the 7-2 advantage. Now, with two runners in scoring position, Valero laced a 2-0 pitch to the wall in left centerfield, scoring two more for a 9-2 lead.
Both teams went quietly in the third and fourth before Utah Tech clawed two of the runs back on a two-run home run by Parker Schmidt, but Aloy had an answer again, launching a home run over the wall in left center to push the lead back to six.
The home run was the 87th of the season for Sacramento State, extending its school single-season record, and marked the 11th time in the last 12 games that the Hornets have left the yard.
A sacrifice fly by Jacob Cortez in the seventh stretched the lead out a little bit more after the stretch, but the Trailblazers kept coming, adding a home run by Ethan He to lead-off the eighth. However, the Hornets responded once again as Heard doubled to lead-off the frame and scored easily on Crenshaw's triple into the right field corner. Rolling then scored Crenshaw, sneaking a double inside the bag down the left field line for a 13-5 lead.
Cayden Clark led off with a home run to left in the ninth to make it 13-6, but that would be as close as the Trailblazers would get as Lucchesi got a pair of ground balls and a strikeout around a walk to end the game.
The three runs scored by Aloy give him 66 on the year, standing just one shy of Hunter Martinez (2009) for third on the school's single-season list, while his three hits (good for his 29th multi-hit game of the year) give him 85 for the year and sole possession of 10th on the single-season chart.
Sacramento State and Utah Tech will meet on Friday night (May 19) at 6 p.m. in game two of their series at John Smith Field.
