SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After a back-and-forth first two innings, the Sacramento State baseball team settled in and broke Thursday's game two of the series against South Dakota State wide open in the middle innings, plating 11 unanswered runs en route to a 14-5 victory at John Smith Field.
The Hornets' win clinched no worse than a split of this week's four-game series with the Jackrabbits, improving to 6-4 overall on the year. South Dakota State, which managed 15 hits of its own, remained winless on the year at 0-6.
Beginning with its 10 runs scored in the series finale against Ball State on Feb. 22, Sacramento State has now scored double-digit runs in each of its last three contests — the longest such run of offense since the Hornets did so in four straight against Pacific (18) and Utah Tech (13, 12, and 11) from May 16-20, 2023.
Sacramento State has also knocked 10-or-more hits in each of those three contests — and five times overall this year — averaging nearly 13 hits per contest in that stretch. Of the 38 total hits, 13 of those have gone for extra bases, including six that have left the yard.
Five different Hornets finished with multiple hits on the day led by sophomore Jakob Poturnak, who logged his second multi-home run game of the season as part of a 3-for-4 day that included three runs scored, a double, and three RBI. The performance marked his fourth three-hit game of the year (out of five total multi-hit contests) and home runs No. 4 and No. 5 to help extend his hitting streak to a team-best seven straight games.
Ahead of him in the lineup, junior JP Smith finished 3-for-5 with his third home run of the season, logging his third multi-hit game of the year and his eighth consecutive game reaching base safely.
Junior Elie Kligman finished 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and four RBI, while freshman Michael Perazzo added a 2-for-2 day with three runs batted in. Tyler White, who added two hits to go with his team-best 17th walk of the year, reached base safely for the 10th consecutive game, while Ryan Christiansen and Jacob Cortez added RBI.
Bryce Stockton (1-0) earned the win in relief as the third of seven Hornet hurlers on the day, throwing 1.2 shutout innings while giving up only three hits and walking one. Jackson Halverson struck out a team-high three over 2.2 innings of relief, while Noah Lucchesi, Andrew Monson, and Chase Sorlie all had scoreless appearances.
South Dakota State sent eight batters to the plate as part of a two-run first inning and, after Kligman and Christiansen drove in runs to tie it in the home half, added a third run in the second to regain a 3-2 lead.
It stayed that way until the fourth when the Hornet bats busted loose, taking the lead for good. Smith led-off the frame with a solo shot over the left field fence to tie the game and, after a single by Kligman, Poturnak launched the go-ahead home run over the wall in left for a 5-3 advantage.
Sacramento State added five in the fifth after sending nine batters to the plate, highlighted by two-run singles off the bats of Kligman and Perazzo, then added three more runs in the sixth to go up 13-3.
The Jackrabbits plated two harmless runs in the seventh before Poturnak closed out the scoring with a shot over the wall in right.
Starter Ty Madison (0-2) suffered the loss for SDSU, allowing seven runs on six hits over four innings, striking out five.
Sacramento State goes for the series win on Friday (Feb. 28) at 2 p.m., with game three at John Smith Field.
