SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Senior Matt Masciangelo finished 3-for-4 with a run scored while four Hornets finished with RBI on the day, but visiting California Baptist erased an early four-run deficit with a big fifth inning, pulling away late for an 8-4 win over Sacramento State on Friday evening at John Smith Field.

It was only the third defeat in the last 10 games for the Hornets, who fell to 22-16 overall and 9-5 in Western Athletic Conference play. The Lancers, meanwhile, improved to 22-17 overall and 5-6 in league action. 

The rubber game of the series is set for Saturday (April 19) at Noon.

Masciangelo's three hits tied his season high set in the series finale at San Francisco back on Feb. 17 when he finished 3-for-3 with a pair of RBI. It was the senior's sixth multi-hit game in 10 games this year, extending his streak of reaching base safely to 23 consecutive games dating back to the final 14 games of the 2024 season.

Freshman Michael Perazzo, who was named to the watch list for the 2025 Brooks Wallace Award given to the nation's top shortstop earlier in the day on Friday, finished with a pair of hits to collect his 11th multi-hit contest of the year.

The Hornets jumped out early to build a 4-0 lead, scoring all of their runs in the first four innings. Elie Kligman put his team on the board first with an RBI single in the first, Perazzo added an RBI single in the second, and doubles by Cameron Sewell and Tyler White made it a four-run lead in the fourth.

That would be it for the Sacramento State offense, however, as California Baptist sent nine batters to the plate as part of a five-run fifth that gave the Lancers their first lead of the day and CBU added three more in the seventh to put the game out of reach.

Carson Latimer earned the start and pitched well, allowing just one hit and striking out three over the first four innings. Noah Lucchesi (4-2) suffered the loss, charged with five runs on four hits while lasting only one-third of an inning. 

Cameron Teper (3-4) earned the win in relief, closing out the fourth inning by getting the final two outs via the strikeout before the Lancer offense exploded in the fifth. Andrew Rudd picked up his second save of the year, throwing the final five innings and allowing just two hits while striking out five.