SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento State baseball team rallied from five runs down in the sixth to tie it in the eighth and then rallied from down two to win in walk-off fashion on a two-out wild pitch, winning the series finale with a 9-8 victory over Loyola Marymount on Sunday afternoon at John Smith Field.
The win pushed the Hornets to 1-2 overall on the year, while the Lions suffered their first loss after taking both ends of a doubleheader on Friday night.
Sacramento State trailed 6-1 heading to the home half of the sixth before beginning to chip away. Gunner Gouldsmith doubled to lead-off the inning and then scored when JP Smith slugged his first home run of the year over the scoreboard in left centerfield to make it a 6-3 ballgame.
A one-out double by
Tyler White two batters later set the table for
Ryan Christiansen with two outs as the sophomore laced a single down the right field line, easily scoring White to make it 6-4.
The rally continued in the eighth as
Matt Masciangelo walked with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch, bringing Christiansen back to the plate. The sophomore the drilled a triple inbetween two defenders in the left centerfield gap, bringing this teammate home and make it a one-run game.
After a pitching change,
Elie Kligman drew a walk to put runners on the corners for
Jose Ruiz, who collected his first hit a Hornet by beating the shift to the left side, plating Christiansen with the tying run.
Loyola Marymount wasted little time regaining the lead in the ninth as Sam Biller and Benny Casillas went back-to-back — Biller clearing the batters eye in center and Casillas knocking one off the scoreboard in left center — to make it a two-run game once again, but the Hornets were far from done.
Smith and
Cesar Valero got the inning started with back-to-back singles to bring up White, who took the second pitch he saw into the left field corner for a double, scoring Smith and moving pinch-runner
Brett Ott to third. Masciangelo then tied things up once again, looping a ball into right field for a sacrifice fly, deep enough to score Ott to make it 8-8.
After a second pitching change in the inning, a strikeout put the Hornets down to their final out, but back-to-back walks to Kligman and Ruiz loaded the bases.
A third pitching change in the inning would be the Lions' undoing however as
Jorge Bojorquez drew a ball on the first pitch only to watch the second one bounce in the dirt and get away from the catcher, just far enough to allow White to score the winning run and set-off a celebration at the backstop.
Four Hornet hitters finished with multiple hits on the day led by Smith's 3-for-4 outing with three runs scored and a pair of RBI. Valero, White, and Christiansen all finished with two hits.
Sophomore
Xavier Richards (1-0) earned the win in relief despite giving up the two runs in the ninth, while Ryan Nullan (0-1) was tagged with the loss, responsible for all three of Sacramento State's runs in the final inning.
The Hornets are scheduled to return to the field on Tuesday (Feb. 20) at 6 p.m., hosting Fresno State at John Smith Field before hitting the road to take on UC Santa Barbara in a three-game weekend series that will be played at Chukchansi Park in Fresno, Calif.
