SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Senior Matt Masciangelo doubled off the wall in right field with two outs in the bottom of the 11th, scoring junior teammate Ryan Christiansen all the way from first with the winning run, lifting the Sacramento State baseball team to a 7-6 marathon walk-off victory over Seattle U on Saturday night at John Smith Field.
The win improved the Hornets to 20-14 overall and 8-3 in Western Athletic Conference play, clinching their second straight league series and their third in four series overall. The walk-off victory was the fifth of the season for Sacramento State — and the third in extra innings — coming just a day after the Hornets had rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to win the series opener on Friday.
With the loss, the Redhawks fell to 12-22 overall and 3-8 in league play, rallying back from three runs down in the second inning to tie the game in the fourth and set the stage for the extra-inning dramatics.
A nice play by the Seattle U first baseman to lead-off the 11th took away potential extra bases for Cameron Sewell for the first out and a strikeout followed, threatening to send the team's to a third extra frame. Christiansen worked the count full before drawing a walk — his second of the night — to bring up Masciangelo, who launched an 0-2 offering off Ryan Morrison (0-2) to right field.
The ball ricocheted off the top of the wall and eluded the Redhawk rightfielder, giving Christiansen enough time to round third and touch the plate for the winning run, setting off the celebration and putting an end to a contest that took three hours and 45 minutes.
Kade Brown (2-2), who earned the save in Friday's series opener, pitched the final 2.1 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three to pick up the win.
Colin Hunter and
Andrew Monson combined for 5.2 innings of scoreless relief, with Hunter going four innings, allowing one hit and striking out four, while Monson allowed two hits over his 1.2 scoreless frames.
Seattle U was the first on the board with three runs in the second with the help of a pair of Hornet miscues, but Sacramento State rallied in the home half to take the lead. A walk, single, and hit batter loaded the bases for
Tyler White, who followed with a one-out free pass on a full count to break up the shutout.
Luis Pimentel-Guerrero followed with another run-scoring full-count walk to bring up junior
JP Smith, who slugged his sixth home run of the year — and his second grand slam of the campaign — off the fair pole down the left field line for a 6-3 advantage.
The Redhawks got a run closer with one in the third and plated two in the fourth to tie the game without the benefit of a hit, scoring on a bases-loaded walk, a wild pitch, and a sacrifice fly.
That set off the battle of the bullpens as the six pitchers that followed combined to allow just 10 hits over the final seven innings before Masciangelo's game-winning hit.
Jakob Poturnak and
Michael Perazzo joined Masciangelo with two hits on the night, while Pimentel-Guerrero drew three walks.Â
Sacramento State looks for its second consecutive series sweep on Sunday (April 13) in the finale, which is scheduled now to begin at Noon instead of the originally scheduled 1 p.m. start due to changes in Seattle U's travel plans.
