SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento State's offense scratched across all the runs it would need with three in the first two innings, while senior right-hander Evan Gibbons and two relievers combined to strikeout 14 on the day, lifting the Hornets to a 4-1 win over South Dakota State and a series victory on Friday afternoon at John Smith Field.

Sacramento State has won the first three games in the series with the Jackrabbits to improve to 7-4 overall on the year and will go for a sweep of the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. South Dakota State, limited to just four hits and a late run, fell to 0-7 on the year.

Gibbons (2-1) won his second consecutive decision, throwing 5.1 shutout innings while scattering just four hits and striking out seven without a walk on 93 pitches. He struck out the side in the first around two singles and retired eight straight at one point into the fourth inning, falling just one strikeout shy of his career high of eight, which he tied last weekend in a win over Ball State.

Noah Lucchesi came on in the sixth and faced two batters, getting one to strikeout, before giving way to closer Kade Brown, who escaped a bases-loaded jam by catching pinch hitter Adam Benes looking to end the threat. Brown went on to pitch the final 3.1 innings, allowing an unearned run without allowing a hit, walking a pair and striking out six to pick up his fourth save of the year.

Coupled with his eight saves in 2024, Brown now ranks tied for sixth on the school's all-time list for the category along with Tyler Beardsley (2015-16) and Trevor Rodgers (1990-91). He now needs four more saves to tie Tanner Dalton (2018-19) and Michael Penbera (1999-01) for fourth.

Offensively, junior Ryan Christiansen put Sacramento State on the board quickly in the home half of the first inning, slugging his third home run of the year over the wall in right field for a 1-0 lead. It marked the first time this series that the Hornets had scored first and was the first of three hits on the day for Christiansen, who finished a triple short of the cycle.

Sacramento State extended its lead with a pair of runs in the second — both coming with two outs — as Jacob Cortez drew a four-pitch walk and went all the way to third on a single by Michael Perazzo. Tyler White followed by rapping a single to center, scoring Cortez and moving Perazzo into scoring position for Christiansen, who followed with a double down the right field line that easily scored Perazzo for the 3-0 advantage.

The Hornets tacked on another run in the fourth as White and Christiansen each reached on one-out singles to bring up JP Smith, who laced a single past the SDSU second baseman to score White and make it 4-0.

South Dakota State broke up the shutout with an unearned run in the eighth as a pair of walks put two on for Keagan Jirschele, whose ground ball was misplayed, allowing Nolan Grawe to score for the final 4-1 tally.

Aside from Christiansen's three-hit day, White finished 2-for-4 and four other Hornets collected hits, including one off the bat of Jakob Poturnak, who extended his team-best hitting streak to eight consecutive games with a first-inning single. Christiansen's three-hit performance was his third of the year, tying him with Poturnak for the team lead with five multi-hit games this year.

White, with his two hits, has now reached base safely in all 11 of Sacramento State's games thus far, while Smith (nine) and Poturnak (eight) also extended their respective streaks.