SACRAMENTO — Senior Gunner Gouldsmith finished with a pair of hits — including his fourth home run of the season — and drove in four and Sacramento State withstood a furious comeback from visiting Stephen F. Austin to send the seniors out on a high note, posting an 11-9 victory and a Western Athletic Conference series victory on Sunday at John Smith Field.

The Hornets improved to 25-28 overall and 13-14 in league play, officially clinching a spot in the WAC Tournament. Sacramento State's victory gave it a four-game lead in the standings over both Seattle U and Utah Tech with only three games remaining. 

With the loss, the Lumberjacks fell to 10-42 overall and 6-24 in conference.

Gouldsmith was one of three Hornets to post multiple hits on the day, driving home three runs with his home run as part of an eight-run first inning and adding an RBI triple in the third that extended the lead to 9-1 at the time.

Junior Elie Kligman finished 2-for-3 for the day and added three RBI while also walking twice, while sophomore JP Smith was also 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, and two runs scored.

Thanks to their two-hit days, both Gouldsmith and Smith extended their respective hitting streaks to seven games, while Gouldsmith posted his team-high 20th multi-hit game of the year. With his double, senior Jorge Bojorquez has now reached base safely in 18 straight games — tied for the longest such streak by a Hornet this year.
 

Stephen F. Austin put up a run in the first to take an early lead but it didn't take long for Sacramento State to respond, sending 12 batters to the plate in the home half and scoring eight times to take a seemingly insurmountable lead.

Kligman's two-run double put the Hornets ahead for good, but it wasn't enough for the offense while tacked on an RBI double by Bojorquez and a two-run single off the bat of Ryan Christiansen before Gouldsmith smacked a 410-foot shot over the batter's eye in right center field.

Gouldsmith's RBi triple in the third extended the lead and Sacramento State made it a 10-1 contest in the fourth as Kligman singled up the middle to score Cameron Sewell.

From that point on, the Hornets had to hang on tight as the Lumberjacks scored seven unanswered runs to make it a one-run game in the seventh. SFA put up five runs in the fifth, with the big blow coming off the bat of Cole Hill who slugged a three-run home run, and threatened to tack on more than a run in the sixth were it not for the arm of Brett Ott, who threw out Hill trying to go first-to-third on Colton Griffin's RBI single to end the inning.

The Lumberjacks then made it a one-run game in the seventh thanks to Cal Martin's two-run home run, but they would score no more.

Sacramento State freshman closer Kade Brown then took over in the eighth, stranding the tying run in scoring position with a pair of strikeouts after a hit batter and a sacrifice. The Hornets added an important insurance run in the home half thanks to a "sun double" to right by Smith, who came all the way around to score on a pair of perfectly placed ground outs to make it 11-9, but the drama did not stop there.

Brown got a quick strikeout to start the ninth, but a walk and a single put two on for Tom Biggs, who struck out swinging on a 3-2 pitch for the second out. After another walk loaded the bases, Brown shut the door with his fifth strikeout of the game to end it.

For Brown, it was his eighth save of the season, tying him for 10th on the school's single-season list with Trevor Rodgers (1990), Mitch Lively (2007), and R.J. Davis (2012), while moving him to within one save of breaking into the all-time top 10.

Senior Jasper Nelson (1-1) was credited with the win, throwing a season-high four innings, giving up just one run on two hits while striking out five. The Lumberjacks' Skyler Jaco (1-5) was tagged with the loss, allowing eight runs on six hits and walking one while lasting only two-thirds of an inning.

Sacramento State ends the regular season on the road in Edinburgh, Texas, next week, taking on UTRGV in a three-game series that begins Thursday (May 16) and runs through Saturday (May 18). The Hornets and Vaqueros are tied for seventh in the WAC standings at 13-14 and both stand one game back of UT Arlington for sixth. 

The Mavericks take on Tarleton State in their final weekend of the regular season, trailing the Texans by two games in the standings for fifth.

The WAC Tournament begins on Tuesday (May 21) at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz.