SACRAMENTO — Sophomore JP Smith and senior Cesar Valero each slugged a pair of home runs to help power the Sacramento State offense on Tuesday night, but visiting UC Davis rallied in the middle innings for the go-ahead run and pulled away for a 10-5 victory over the Hornets at John Smith Field.
Sacramento State, which entered the night having won 25 of the previous 29 meetings with its Causeway rivals dating back to 2009, fell to 5-7 overall with the loss, while the Aggies improved to 7-5 overall.
Monday marked the second four-homer game for Sacramento State this year as well as Smith's third multi-homer contest of the season after both accomplished their respective feats against Fresno State on Feb. 21 and Smith added a pair of home runs against Minnesota on March 1. Now with eight home runs on the year, the sophomore entered the night leading the Western Athletic Conference in the category and ranked tied for ninth in the nation.
Valero, meanwhile posted his third career multi-homer game and his first since he did so in back-to-back games at New Mexico State on April 9 and April 10, 2022. The senior now has three home runs on the season and pushed his career total to 26, moving him past Rhys Hoskins (2012-14) and into a tie with Dawsen Bacho (2017-22) for ninth on the school's all-time list.
The total is just nine shy of the school career record of 35 shared by Harvey Hargrove (1995-97) and Martin Vincelli-Simard (2019-23).
Smith and Valero went back-to-back to open the scoring in the first, each clearing the wall in centerfield with two outs for a 2-0 lead.
The score stayed that way until the fourth when UC Davis took its first lead of the night. A wild pitch with runners on second and third put the Aggies on the board and UC Davis added a run on an infield hit and two more on a double to center field later in the inning for a 4-2 advantage.
That lead didn't last long as Valero promptly tied the game in the fifth. Smith walked on four pitches with two outs to bring up the senior, who worked the count to 2-0 before clearing the left field fence on a line to bring the Hornets even at 4-4.
The back-and-forth affair switched in favor of UC Davis in the sixth on a squeeze for a 5-4 lead and the Aggies pulled away from there. UC Davis sandwiched a three-run eighth and a pair in the ninth around Smith's second home run of the night to cap the scoring.
Smith finished 2-for-2 with three runs scored, a pair of walks, and two RBI, while Valero was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and three RBI. Gunner Gouldsmith and Brett Ott also added singles, while Ryan Christiansen joined Smith with a pair of walks on the night.
Zach Romero (2-0) — the fifth of eight Aggie pitchers on the night — earned the win for UC Davis, while Noah Lucchesi (0-1) suffered the loss, allowing the go-ahead run on three hits over 2.1 innings of work. Hornet starter Cooper Rons started and allowed just one hit while striking out three over the first three innings.
Sacramento State returns to John Smith Field this weekend to open Western Athletic Conference play with a three-game series against Utah Valley. The series opens on Friday (March 8) at 2 p.m., following by a 6 p.m. first pitch on Saturday (March 9). The series closes on Sunday (March 10) with a single-game at Noon.
