SACRAMENTO — Coming off a huge come-from-behind win over Pacific to close out the weekend, the Sacramento State baseball team continues its run of home games to start the 2024 season, welcoming in Causeway rival UC Davis to John Smith Field on Tuesday night (March 5). First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

PLAY BALL…
WHAT: UC Davis (6-5) at Sacramento State (5-6)
WHEN: Tuesday, March 5, 2024
TIME: 6 p.m. PT
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
STADIUM: John Smith Field
WATCH LIVE: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
BUY TICKETS: HornetSports.com

ON THE MOUND…
Sacramento State: TBA
UC Davis: TBA

CONGRATULATIONS TO CHRISTIANSEN…
• With the win in the weekend opener against Minnesota, Head Coach Reggie Christiansen picked up his 500th career Division I victory by a 7-5 score over Minnesota, improving to 501-450 (.527) following Sunday's win over Pacific
• That milestone joins both his 500th overall win as a head coach (April 30, 2023 at New Mexico State) and his 400th win as the Hornets' head coach (May 20, 2023 vs. Utah Tech)
• In 14 years as head coach at Sacramento State, Christiansen is 405-337 (.546) as the Hornet mentor
• He is also 512-479 (.571) as a collegiate head coach overall
• Christiansen is nine game shy of coaching in his 1,000 career game as a head coach, which would happen on March 19 against Nevada at home barring interference from Mother Nature between now and then

SCOUTING THE AGGIES…
• UC Davis enters the midweek clash with Sacramento State sporting a 6-5 record after dropping 3-of-4 on the road to the Hornets' WAC rival, California Baptist, over the weekend
• The Aggies lost the first three games in the series by a combined score of 17-6 before claiming the finale with a 10-5 victory
• The four-game series against the Lancers were the first road contests of the year for UC Davis, which opened by winning five of seven at home against another WAC opponent in SeattleU (won 2-of-3), BYU (won 2-of-3), and a midweek game against Pacific (W, 17-3)
• Junior outfielder Mark Wolbert leads the offense, batting .340  with an .832 OPS, scoring nine times, slugging three doubles, and driving in six
• Junior infielder Nick Leehey and senior outfielder Damian Stone have combined to drive in 23 runs on the season (12 and 11, respectively)
• UC Davis is batting .282 as a team, outscoring its opponents by a 79-67 score
• As a whole, the pitching staff sports a 5.63 ERA and has struck out 90 hitters against only 48 walks
• Opponents are hitting .286 against the staff over 96 innings of work

SERIES NOTES…
• Tuesday marks the first of three regular season midweek meetings between the Hornets and the Aggies
• Sacramento State will travel to Davis on March 26, before hosting the Aggies on April 30 for a second time
• The winner of each season's "series" earns the right to host two of the three meetings the following season
• In one of the longest-running series in the history of the program, Sacramento State leads the all-time series with UC Davis by a 144-90-1 count, including a 46-36 advantage as a Division I program
• The Hornets are a commanding 88-37 at home in the series, while holding a 55-48 lead on the road
• Sacramento State won both games against UC Davis at home last season by the scored of 9-6 on March 7 and 7-5 on May 9, with the Aggies claiming an 11-inning 4-3 win at home on April 11
• The Hornets have won six of the last seven in the series and 25 of the last 29 dating back to 2009
• Sacramento State has won five straight in the series at home dating back to 2017, having not lost at John Smith Field by the score of 7-1 on May 10, 2016

CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State has faced all 11 members of the current Big West Conference alignment, posting a 295-379-2 record against the group
• UC Davis is the second Big West opponent for the Hornets this year after Sacramento State faced UC Santa Barbara in a three-game series at home on Feb. 23-25 (the Gauchos took 2-of-3)
• Aside from local long-time rival UC Davis, the Hornets' 29 wins against UCSB are tied for the second-most along with the 29 wins against Hawai'i

BIG LEAGUE CAMPERS…
• As Major League Baseball teams set up for Spring Training, Sacramento State had five former standouts in the green and gold open in big league camps
• After spending his first six Major League seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies and coming off an injury that kept him out for all of 2023, Rhys Hoskins signed a two-year deal with the Milwaukee Brewers
• After being drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018, James Outman begins his second full season in Dodger Blue after finishing third in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2023 (.248 / .353 / .437 with 23 home runs and 70 RBI)
• Appearing in 29 games for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2023 after making his debut on March 30, Nathan Lukes enters his second season on the 40-man roster
• Entering his fourth professional season after being drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2016, left-hander Sam Long signed a free agent deal with the Kansas City Royals after appearing in 40 games with the Oakland Athletics in 2023

FEELS LIKE HOME…
• With the addition of the home series against UC Santa Barbara, 31 of the Hornets' 56 games will be played within the friendly confines of John Smith Field, including 15 of the team's first 16 contests
• Sacramento State was 20-11 at home in 2023 -- the 12th consecutive season that the Hornets have posted a winning record at home since 2012
• The 20 wins are tied for the third-most in that span trailing only the 2014 (25-8) and 2019 (22-7) campaigns and tied with the 2015 (20-11) squad
• Since Head Coach Reggie Christiansen took over in 2011, the Hornets are a combined 223-141 (.613) at home entering 2024

HORNET SHORT HOPS…
• Tuesday marks the third midweek contest of the year for the Hornets, who opened with a win over Fresno State (8-6) on Feb. 21 before falling at California (3-1) on Feb. 27
• Sacramento State is 11-4 in midweek contests over the last two seasons following last week's game at California
• The 3-1 loss to the Golden Bears snapped a three-game midweek winning streak
• The Hornets' 11 runs in the win over Pacific on Sunday were a season high and the most since they put up 11 against Utah Tech in last year's regular season finale
• Junior Matt Masicangelo led the Hornets' offense during a 2-2 week, batting .500 (6-for-12) in three of the team's four games with a pair of runs scored, three doubles, a triple and four RBI
• For the week, he slugged .917 for the week and posted .600 on-base percentage
• He also was hit by a pitch for the 10th time this season, tied atop the national rankings along with San Francisco's Kody Wantanabe
• Masciangelo posted back-to-back three-hit games against Minnesota and Pacific, raising his average 230 points to a team-high .292 on the year after collecting just one hit in his first 16 at-bats as a Hornet
• Fell a home run shot of the cycle in the weekend finale against Pacific
• Masciangelo has reached base safely in all 10 of his appearances with the Hornets, hitting safely four times and drawing either a walk or hit by pitch in the other six
• Sophomore JP Smith continued to tear the cover off the ball, slugging three home runs last week and driving in five
• The three home runs brought his season totals to six home runs and 12 RBI — the former leading the WAC and ranking tied for ninth in the NCAA 
• Coupled with his 14 home runs last season — which tied the program's Division I era freshman record — Smith now stands just five home runs shy of Rhys Hoskins (2012-14) for 10th place on the school's all-time list
• Senior Gunner Gouldsmith enters Tuesday with a hit in four straight games after opening the regular season with hits in his first five contests
• Junior Elie Kligman has certainly gotten his steps in this season, drawing at least one walk in six of his eight games and multiple walks in three of those — including three against LMU on Feb. 18
• Kligman's 10 walks rank fourth in the league behind leader Colton Griffin (12) of Stephen F. Austin
• The Hornet bullpen was lights out over the weekend against Minnesota and Pacific, holding opposing hitters to a .123 average (allowing just 10 hits in 81 at-bats) while posting a 1.02 ERA (two runs allowed) over 17.2 innings and a nearly 3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio (20 strikeouts, seven walks)
• Sophomore right-hander Xavier Richards was a big part of that, allowing just three hits over 5.1 innings (three appearances) while striking out nine without walking a hitter
• Richards posted a stingy .150 average against on the weekend, which included four strikeouts in 1.2 innings against Minnesota and one hit and three strikeouts in 2.2 shutout innings against Pacific
• Freshman Kade Brown picked up his second save of the year in the weekend-opening win over Minnesota, striking out a batter while getting the final four outs of a 7-5 win
• In his first appearance of the week, he threw two shutout innings at California, striking out a pair
• Brown has not allowed a run over his last 8.0 innings of work, walking three and striking out nine in that span
• Opponents are hitting just .069 against the right-hander overall this year
• Sacramento State's defense turned four more double plays over the weekend — including three against Minnesota on March 2 — to bring its total to 12 on the year
• The Hornets rank tied for No. 12 in the NCAA in double plays turned, chasing national leaders Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, and Michigan with 15 apiece