SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Sophomore Jakob Poturnak clubbed the first two home runs of his Sacramento State career as part of a three-hit day, but a pair of big innings were all host San Francisco needed to even up its four-game series with the Hornets, posting an 8-5 victory in game two on Saturday afternoon at Benedetti Diamond.
Both teams moved to 1-1 overall on the year after Sacramento State had won the opener at home on Friday (Feb. 14) by a 4-3 score.
Poturnak, in his first season in the green and gold after transferring from Cloud County CC, finished 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and four RBI to go with his two home runs, collecting his first hit as a Hornet with a single in the second and adding two-run home runs in the fourth and eighth innings.
Senior Matt Masciangelo and newcomer Luis Pimentel-Guerrero each contributed two-hit days, with the former driving in the latter with a single in the fifth.
Senior right-hander Evan Gibbons (0-1) suffered the loss, tagged for seven runs on seven hits while walking three and striking out a pair over 4.2 innings of work. Sean Carey added 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball, giving up a hit and striking out a pair, while freshman Jackson Halverson threw the final inning, allowing a run on two hits in his Hornet debut.
Joe Soberon (1-0) earned the win for the Dons, allowing three runs on five hits and striking out six against only one walk over six innings of work. Kolby Calia earned his first save of the year, striking out three over the final two hitless and scoreless frames after the Hornets had cut the deficit to only two.
A four-run third inning staked San Francisco to the early lead with the big blow coming off the bat of TJ Rogers, who slugged a three-run home run for the 4-0 lead. After Poturnak's first home run of the day in the fourth and Masciangelo's RBI single in the fifth made it a one-run game, the Dons put up three more runs in the fifth with Rogers and JT Amaral collecting RBI singles around a Tyler Harries sac fly made it 7-3.
Christian Perez was hit by a pitch to lead-off the eighth and Poturnak followed with his second long ball of the afternoon to bring the Hornets back to within a pair, but an infield single and a balk put a runner in scoring position for Kenny DeCelle, whose single through the right side drove home another and capped the scoring for the Dons.
DeCelle finished 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI, while Rogers finished with two hits and four driven in to lead the San Francisco offense while got seven of its 10 hits from the top three hitters in the lineup.
The scene shifts once again back to Sacramento for game three of the series on Sunday (Feb. 16) at 2 p.m. The series finale is then scheduled for Monday (Feb. 17) in San Francisco, also at 2 p.m.
