SACRAMENTO — Junior Matt Masciangelo finished 4-for-5 to help lead a 16-hit Hornet barrage while JP Smith homered and finished a triple short of a cycle as the Sacramento State baseball team clinched its first series victory of the year, defeating Utah Valley by a 10-3 score on Sunday afternoon at John Smith Field.
The Hornets improved to 7-8 overall and improved to 2-1 in Western Athletic Conference play with the win. Sacramento State's 16 hits were a season high and the most since the Hornets banged out 17 hits in the second game of a series against Utah Tech on May 19 of last year.
The Wolverines fell to 4-10 overall and 1-2 in league play with the defeat.
Senior right-hander Cooper Rons (2-0) earned the win in relief of starter Andrew Overland, entering the game and stranding a pair in scoring position in the fourth while allowing one earned run on two hits while striking out three over two innings of work.
Overland pitched well in the start, throwing 3.2 shutout innings while scattering two hits, walking a pair, and striking out four. Sophomore Xavier Richards threw 1.2 shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts before giving way to freshman Kade Brown in the eighth, who got the final five outs and struck out two en route to his third save of the season.
Opener Chase Hennessey (0-2) suffered the loss, allowing a run on two hits in his only inning of work.
Back-to-back doubles by Smith and Cesar Valero in the first staked the Hornets to an early lead before the home team broke the game wide open with a four-run second inning.
A double by Jorge Bojorquez started the frame and he was at third with two outs when Gunner Gouldsmith extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI single through the right side to make it 2-0. A wild pitch put him into scoring position for Masciangelo, who laced a single to left centerfield for the three-run advantage.
Smith then put the exclamation point on the big inning, lofting his ninth home run of the year just over the wall in left centerfield for the 5-0 advantage and the Hornets never looked back.
Sacramento State tacked on another run in the fourth on an RBI single by Elie Kligman to score Masciangelo for the 6-0 lead before Utah Valley finally broke up the shutout in the fifth with a sacrifice fly.
The Wolverines added a single run in the sixth to make it 6-2, but that would be as close as they would come the rest of the way as the Hornets put up another four runs in the eighth to pull away. Smith got the scoring started with a one-out RBI single and Kligman brought in another with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
Brett Ott and Bojorquez followed with RBI singles for the eight-run advantage and Sacramento State absorbed a ninth-inning score by Utah Valley en route to the victory.
Valero, Kligman, and Bojorquez joined Masciangelo and Smith with multi-hit games, while sophomore Jaxon Byrd added to the hit total with a third-inning single. Masciangelo is the first Hornet with at least four hits in a game since Wehiwa Aloy did so against New Mexico State on April 28 of last season.
Meanwhile, Smith's home run gave Sacramento State 16 on the season and at least one in each of the team's last five games.
Having already played 14 of their 15 games this year at John Smith Field, the Hornets will close out their home-heavy start with a midweek rematch against Fresno State on Tuesday (March 12) at 6 p.m. Sacramento State, which defeated the Bulldogs by an 8-6 score on Feb. 21 at home, then hits the road for only the second time this year for a three-game WAC series at Utah Tech on March 15-17 in St. George, Utah.
