BELLEVUE, Wash. — Senior Jorge Bojorquez finished with three hits and set a school career record for runs scored after crossing the plate four times on the day, while senior right-hander Evan Gibbons tossed his third consecutive "quality start" with seven strong innings on Friday as the Sacramento State baseball team cruised to a 14-2 victory over Seattle U in eight innings at Bannerwood Park.
The Hornets improved to 16-20 overall and 7-9 in Western Athletic Conference play, winning the series opener for the fourth time in six league series. The Redhawks fell to 8-25 overall and 3-10 in conference.
Gibbons (2-4) went at least seven innings on the mound for the third straight start, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out a pair to earn the win. It was his fourth "quality start" overall this season while retiring 12 of the final 13 batters he faced, allowing only a walk in that stretch. Noah Lucchesi then closed things out, striking out one in a perfect eighth inning to nail down the win.
Seattle starter Blake Smith (3-4) suffered the loss, tagged for five runs on 10 hits over 5.2 innings of work.
Bojorquez helped power a 15-hit Hornet attack on Friday, finishing 3-for-4 with four runs scored, a home run (his second of the year), and four RBI while standing as one of five Sacramento State hitters with multiple hits on the day. His four runs scored gave him 143 for his career, surpassing Derrick Chung (2008-12) and Matt Smith (2016, 2018-21) for the top spot on the program's all-time list.
Junior Tyler White also ended with a three-hit day, finishing 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a pair of RBI to extend his hitting streak to eight consecutive contests and notch his sixth multi-hit game in that stretch. Senior Gunner Gouldsmith, junior Matt Masciangelo, and freshman Cameron Sewell all collected two hits on the day, with one of Masciangelo's clearing the wall in right for his third of the year.
After spotting the Redhawks a run in the first, Masciangelo's blast — a two-run shot that plated Gouldsmith ahead of him — staked the Hornets to a lead they would not relinquish at 2-1 in the third. Jacob Cortez added a run in the fourth with an RBI single, but another blast — this one off the bat of Seattle's Jackson Reed — made it a one-run game once again.
That would be as close as the Redhawks would get as Sacramento State opened the floodgates in the sixth, scoring 11 times in the final three innings.
The Hornets put two across the plate on a bases-loaded ground ball and a Ryan Christiansen single — his seventh RBI in his last five games — to make it 5-2, then took advantage of a fit of wildness from the mound by Seattle to break the game wide open in the seventh.
A hit batter and a pair of walks with one out loaded the bases for Bojorquez, who was hit by another pitch to make it 6-2 and bring a call to the bullpen. After the change, a wild pitch plated a seventh run and Sewell followed with a single to right, extending the lead to 8-2. Cortez added a fourth run in the inning with a sacrifice fly for the 9-2 advantage.
Five runs invoked the run-rule in the eighth. A walk to Gouldsmith and a Masciangelo single was followed by a wild pitch to put a pair in scoring position for White, who greeted a Redhawk reliever with a single to right, scoring a pair to make it 11-2.
A single by JP Smith, who also added a pair of walks on the day, and a fly ball put runners on the corners for Bojorquez, who finished off his tremendous day at the plate with his second home run of the year for the final 14-2 score.
Game two of the series is scheduled for Saturday (April 13) at 2 p.m.
