STOCKTON, Calif. — Senior right-hander Tyler Stewart struck out a career-high 10 batters over seven innings on Saturday night, but a late eighth-inning rally by host Pacific lifted the Tigers to a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over Sacramento State at Klein Family Field in Stockton, Calif.
The defeat dropped Sacramento State to 8-6 overall on the year, falling to the Tigers by the same score as it won by in the series opener on Friday night at John Smith Field. Pacific improved to 8-7 overall with the victory.
Stewart threw an absolute gem in the no-decision, allowing an unearned run on three hits while striking out a career-high 10 without a walk — the most strikeouts by a Hornet pitcher since Travis Adams struck out 13 at Northern Colorado on April 24, 2021. Stewart retired 13 consecutive batters from the third through the seventh innings before giving way to the bullpen, allowing all of the damage against him in the first two innings. The Cameron Park, Calif., native struck out a pair in the first, second, and fourth innings, and punched out single batters in the remaining four frames en route to his career-high total.
Sacramento State was on the board first as it loaded the bases with two outs on singles by JP Smith and Jakob Poturnak — the latter extending his hitting streak to 11 games dating back to Feb. 17 at San Francisco — and a walk to Cameron Sewell. Christian Perez was then hit by a 1-2 pitch to drive home Smith for the 1-0 lead.
Back-to-back singles in the bottom of the second put runners at the corners for the Tigers, who capitalized on a fielding error that would have ended the inning to tie the game.
Stewart and Pacific starter Adan Perez then matched zeroes until the fifth when the Hornets were able to regain the lead — again with two outs. Ryan Christiansen drew a walk and moved to second on Smith's second hit of the day. That brought up Poturnak, whose grounder found its way through on the right side for a single, scoring Christiansen from second to make it 2-1.
That lasted until the eighth when Sacramento State seemingly broke the game wide open. An infield hit by Sewell and a walk to pinch-hitter Orlando Cobarrubias put two on for Luis Pimentel-Guerrero, who snuck a ball inside the bag at third and down the left field line for a double, scoring Sewell to make it 3-1.
Michael Perazzo then bounced a ball up the middle against a drawn-in infield for a single, scoring a pair and giving the Hornets a 5-1 advantage.
That's when Pacific rallied to take the lead for good. A two-out double by Rylan Evans cut the deficit to two runs for the Tigers and Jake Tandy slugged his first home run of the year — a three-run shot to left — for the 6-5 lead.
The Hornets tried for one more rally, putting the lead-off hitter on base in the ninth only to have him erased at third on a ground ball trying to advance before a fly-ball double play ended the game.
Smith was 3-for-5 with a double for Sacramento State to lead all hitters, while Poturnak's two hits gave him his team-high seventh multi-hit game of the year. Senior Tyler White was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning to keep his streak of reaching base safely alive, extending his run to 14 consecutive games.
Perazzo also finished with two hits, collecting his second multi-hit game of the year and extending his hitting streak to five games dating back to Feb. 22 against Ball State.
After playing in only their third road game of the season on Saturday night, the Hornets host the Tigers in the rubber game of the series on Sunday (March 9) at 2 p.m. at John Smith Field in Sacramento, Calif.
