SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Freshman Michael Perazzo's squeeze with one out in the sixth drove home Cameron Sewell with the go-ahead run and the Sacramento State baseball team scored five unanswered runs late to pull away for an 8-3 victory over UT Arlington in the opener of a three-game Western Athletic Conference series on Friday afternoon at John Smith Field.
The win improved the Hornets to 12-9 overall and 1-0 in league play, earning Head Coach Reggie Christiansen the 200th WAC victory of his career. The Mavericks fell to 6-12 overall and 0-1 in conference.
Senior right-hander Evan Gibbons (3-1) picked up the victory, throwing 6.2 innings while allowing three runs on six hits and striking out six for his fourth "quality start" of the season. Senior Noah Lucchesi followed by getting the next two outs before sophomore closer Kade Brown picked up his sixth save of the year in six chances, striking out two over the final 1.2 innings.
Starter Caylon Dygert (3-3) suffered the loss for UT Arlington, charged with three earned over 5.2 innings, allowing nine hits and striking out four.
A catcher's interference call in the sixth that went against the Mavericks proved costly as the Hornets rallied to take the lead for good after UTA had tied it in the top half of the inning.
Sewell led-off the frame with a sharp single to center before Elie Kligman lofted a fly ball that was caught by the Maverick centerfielder. However, it was ruled that the UT Arlington catcher had interfered on Kligman's swing, erasing the out and allowing the Hornet junior to stay at first.
Jacob Cortez followed with a sacrifice to move both runners up before Perazzo placed his bunt perfectly down the first base side, allowing Sewell to come home and break the tie. That would have been the third out of the inning were it not for the interference, but Sacramento State kept coming.
Tyler White followed with a single left, scoring Kligman for a 5-3 lead and the Hornets never looked back.
Jakob Poturnak made it a three-run lead with a double to left after a walk to
JP Smith in the seventh and Sacramento State capped the scoring with two runs in the eighth as
Ryan Christiansen drove home White (who doubled) with a triple to the wall in right field and he himself scored on a passed ball for the final 8-3 score.
Christiansen, who finished 2-for-5 on the day, put the Hornets on the board in the second inning following a triple by White, slamming his fourth home run of the year over the wall in right for a 2-0 lead. A sacrifice fly by Kligman in the third made it a three-run game before UTA was able to get on the board with a single run in the fourth on an RBI single by Maxwell Mims to break up the shutout.
UT Arlington then rallied to tie it in the top of the sixth as Larry Haskins singled with one out and came home to score on Tyce Armstrong's home run to left center to make it a 3-3 ballgame.
White finished a home run short of a cycle, finishing 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored, while Christiansen was one of four Sacramento State players with two hits on the day. Poturnak posted his team-high 10th multi-hit game of the season while reaching base safely for the 18th consecutive game, while Sewell logged his fifth multi-hit game of the year.
Luis Pimentel-Guerrero finished 2-for-3 for his fourth consecutive multi-hit game and his ninth of the season — the latter ranking behind only Poturnak in the Hornets' lineup.
JP Smith singled in the first to extend his hitting streak to six games — the longest active streak by a Sacramento State hitter.
Game two of the series is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon (March 22) and will be streamed live on the WAC Digital Network.
