SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento State baseball team needed only seven innings to take home a win in its series finale with California Baptist, closing out the weekend with an 11-1 victory over the visiting Lancers on Sunday afternoon at John Smith Field.
The Hornets improved to 14-19 overall and 6-9 in Western Athletic Conference play with the win, while CBU fell to 19-13 overall and 8-4 in league.
Junior right-hander Ian Winterhalder (1-1) picked up his first career win in the green and gold, charged with an unearned run on two hits over 4.2 innings of work, walking a pair and striking out seven. The Murray, Utah, native posted his longest outing as a Hornet while striking out a career-high seven, facing the minimum into the fourth inning before Michael Carpentier logged the Lancers' first hit of the day with a two-out double down the left field line.
Senior right-hander Cooper Rons picked up his second career save despite the lopsided score, entering the game with the tying run at the plate and a 3-0 Sacramento State lead to get the Hornets out of the inning. Rons pitched the final 2.1 innings, allowing just one hit and striking out a pair.
Starter Lukas Pirko (3-2) suffered the loss, allowing two runs on three hits, walking three, and striking out three over the first three innings. He was the first of six pitchers on the day for the Lancers, who walked 11 Hornet batters in the loss.
Junior Tyler White continued to swing a hot bat since returning to the lineup from injury, finishing 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI, and three runs scored. He collected his fourth multi-hit game in his last five starts and his third consecutive two-hit performance.
Senior Cesar Valero also finished 2-for-3 with a pair of runs scored and three RBI, while sophomore Jacob Cortez posted his second-straight two-hit game, ending the day 2-for-4 with a run scored and a pair of RBI.
Sacramento State got off to a great start with a pair of runs in the first as White drew a walk and scored four pitches later on Valero's double to the gap in right center for the 1-0 lead. Junior Elie Kligman followed by sending the first pitch he saw through the right side, enough to get Valero home from second and give the Hornets a two-run lead.
Cortez's double in the fourth scored Jorge Bojorquez, who walked with one out in the inning, for the 3-0 lead before California Baptist was able to scratch across its only run of the day in the fifth on a bases loaded walk.
From that point on, it was all Sacramento State. The Hornets put up three runs in the home half of the fifth on a long two-run single by Valero and a wild pitch with the bases loaded for the 6-1 lead, then exploded for five runs in the seventh to send the home side home happy.
A double by White and walks to Valero and Bojorquez loaded the bases for pinch-hitter Jose Ruiz, who drew a walk of his own to drive home the seventh run of the day and give the Hornets a 7-1 lead. A wild pitch led to another run and Cortez made it a 9-1 ballgame with a single to center.
A stolen base and a walk to Brett Ott reloaded the bases for senior Gunner Gouldsmith who, after a pitching change, lined a ball off the umpire on the infield grass for a single, allowing one run to score and make it 10-1. White then delivered the death knell with a single to right center field to invoke the run-rule.
The 11 walks awarded to Hornet hitters were a season high and marked the most since they had 11 against Menlo College on April 3 of last season. Gouldsmith, White, Bojorquez, and Ott all walked twice on Sunday while three other hitters also drew a base on balls.
Sacramento State opens a season-long stretch of nine consecutive road games in Oregon next week, facing the Ducks in a pair of midweek contests on Tuesday (April 9) and Wednesday (April 10) in Eugene before taking on conference rival SeattleU in a three-game weekend series on April 12-14.
