SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Junior JP Smith finished with two hits, including his 12th home run of the year, while senior Matt Masicangelo reached base four times on a double and three walks, but the Sacramento State offense was limited to just six hits in a 6-3 loss to Utah Tech in game two of their Western Athletic Conference series on Friday afternoon at John Smith Field.

With a share of the WAC regular season title and the No. 1 tournament seed already sewn up following Thursday night's 13-5 victory, the Hornets (31-23, 15-8) will have one more chance to claim the championship outright with a win (or a loss by Abilene Christian at California Baptist) in the rubber game of the series on Saturday at Noon.

The Trailblazers improved to 22-29 overall and 8-15 in WAC play with the win, scoring four runs over the final three innings to take the lead for good.

After spotting Utah Tech a pair of runs in the third, Sacramento State drew even with one swing of the bat in the fourth as Masciangelo walked to lead off the frame and scored when Smith took a 1-2 pitch over the wall in right field to tie the game. The blast with Smith's 12th of the year, giving him 48 for his career — a total that stands fifth on the WAC's all-time list.

With two more home runs, he would join BYU's Cory Snyder (73 from 1982-84), Mike Willes (71 from 1987-88), and Gary Cooper (59 from 1983-86), as well as Arizona State's Bob Horner (56 from 1976-78) and Fresno State's Tom Mendonca (56 from 2007-09) as the only players in league history to hit 50 career home runs.

Meanwhile, Smith's 144 career RBI now rank fourth on the school's all-time list, passing Dawsen Bacho (2017-22) and Tim Wheeler (2007-09) for fourth place. He now stands six shy of Steven Moretto (150 from 2018-22) for third, seven back of Martin Vincelli-Simard (151 from 2019-23) for second, and 14 back of record-holder Matt Smith (158 from 2016-21).

The score remained that way until the seventh when the Trailblazers pushed across two runs to take the lead for good thanks to an RBI double and an error on a pickoff attempt to make it 4-2. Utah Tech then plated a pair of insurance runs in the ninth, leaving the Hornets down to their final three outs.

Lead-off walks to Ryan Christiansen and Cameron Sewell got a Hornet rally started, chasing reliever Ethan Gardner in favor of closer Ryan Kroepel. A line out and a strikeout from Kroepel put Sacramento State down to its final out, but Tyler White kept his team alive with a single to right centerfield, scoring Christiansen to make it 6-3.

The rally was snuffed out, however, as a fly ball to the deepest part of the park ended the game.

Carson Latimer (2-2) suffered the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits and striking out three over three innings in relief of starter Ethan Lay, who allowed two runs on five hits and struck out two over five innings.

Both Smith and White finished with two hits, the latter extending his hitting streak to 10 games. Sewell added the only other hit for the Hornets with a double in the seventh. 

Following Saturday's game, the Sacramento State baseball program will honor its departing seniors after the final out.