MESA, Ariz. — The top-seeded Sacramento State baseball team had its run at the 2025 Western Athletic Conference Tournament come to an end on Friday, suffering a pair of defeats to third-seeded Utah Valley and second-seeded Abilene Christian by the scores of 9-1 and 7-0 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz.
The Hornets finished the season with a 32-26 overall record and a 15-9 mark in WAC play, but can look back at a successful campaign at season's end. Sacramento State posted its highest win total since 2022 when it also finished with 32 victories, while the 15 WAC triumphs were the most since that same year when the Hornets finished 17-13 and third in the league's western division.
By virtue of their conference record, Sacramento State claimed a share of its third WAC regular season title — and its first since winning the league outright in 2014 — while picking up its sixth league trophy overall, adding three tournament titles in 2014, 2017, and 2019 to its three regular season crowns.
The 32 wins also gave the Hornets their 12th season of 30-or-more wins in the last 13 full campaigns — one of the longest such streaks on the West Coast.
When it came time to hand out awards, Sacramento State was first in line, picking up the WAC's Coach of the Year (Reggie Christiansen, his third) and the first-ever WAC Pitcher of the Year trophy in school history (Evan Gibbons).
Gibbons was joined on the All-WAC first team by Kade Brown, JP Smith, and Luis Pimentel-Guerrero, while Jakob Poturnak was a second-team selection. The five all-conference awards were a league high and the most for the program since 2021, while the four first-team honorees were the most in program history.
Nationally, Brown garnered attention from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, who named him a preseason All-American and to both the initial and mid-season watch list for the organization's "Stopper of the Year" Award, while also earning a spot on the Dick Howser Trophy National Player of the Year watch list.
Freshman Michael Perazzo also was named to the initial watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award, standing as one of the top 100 shortstops from across the nation — and one of 11 true or redshirt freshman — to make the cut.
The Hornets opened Friday's play with a winner's bracket contest against the Wolverines, but were unable to get the offense going in the defeat, held to without a hit and pushing across its lone run of the contest in the eighth thanks to a Tyler White bases-loaded walk after Elie Kligman and Michael Perazzo had already drawn walks and Cameron Sewell was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Now with their backs against the wall in an elimination game later in the evening, Sacramento State was able to get hits from Ryan Christiansen, Perazzo, and Matt Masicangelo, but were unable to string them together to produce any runs, falling to the Wildcats to end the day.
