SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Senior right-hander Ethan Lay carried a perfect game into the seventh inning and struck out a career-high 13 hitters while redshirt junior Jakob Poturnak set a career high with four hits at the plate, but visiting Saint Joseph's broke a four-all tie with a run in the 12th inning and hung on to edge Sacramento State, 5-4, on Friday night at John Smith Field.

Lay retired the first 18 Hawks hitters before a throwing error to lead-off the seventh led to the first Saint Joseph's baserunner of the night. Ten of his 13 strikeouts came over that six-inning span as the senior became the 16th Hornet to record at least 13 strikeouts in a game and finished tied for the sixth-most in a single contest.

The last Sacramento State pitcher to strikeout at least that many was Travis Adams, who had 13 at Northern Colorado on April 24, 2021.

Meanwhile, Poturnak paced the offense with a 4-for-7 night at the plate, slugging a pair of doubles and driving in one, while freshman Sam Harry added a career-high three hits and redshirt sophomore Brett Ott tied his career best with three of his own.

After a pair of errors in the seventh led to two unearned runs for the Hawks (2-3) to break up the scoreless tie, the Hornets (1-4) wasted little time in answering back in the home half. Jace Jeremiah led-off with a double to the gap in right center and scored on Ott's one-out double two batters later to halve the Saint Joseph's lead. Poturnak followed with the first of his two doubles to plate Ott and tie the game.

The Hawks stranded the go-ahead run in the eighth, but cashed in for two in the ninth on a two-out two-run double by Jason Janesko that finally chased Lay from the game and put the Hornets' backs against the wall.

Sacramento State, however, didn't go quietly, sending the game to extra innings with two in its last at-bats to tie things up at four. Three straight singles by Ott, Poturnak, and Erick Dessens loaded the bases with nobody out before a wild pitch plated Ott to make it a one-run game.

Harry then came through with a fly ball to right, deep enough to score Poturnak and tie the game. Reliever Matt Spicher (1-0) then wriggled out of the jam, leaving runners in scoring position with a pair of strikeouts and force extra innings.

Saint Joseph's managed only one baserunner in the 10th and 11th innings, while the Hornets had numerous chances leaving two on in each of those two innings. 

The Hawks then capitalized in the 12th, getting a one-out double from Janesko against reliever Devin James (0-1) and scoring the eventual winning run on Jack Saker's two-out RBI single for the 5-4 lead.

Sacramento State managed to put another runner in scoring position in the home half of the 12th as Poturnak blooped a hustle double in the middle of three Saint Joseph's fielders with two outs, but Spicher struck out the final batter he faced to end the game.

In all, the Hornets stranded 16 runners for the game — 11 of those in scoring position — and had runners in scoring position in each inning after tying things up in the seventh.

Spicher scattered just three hits over 3.2 shutout innings, striking out seven without walking a batter. Starter Christian Coppola struck out 11 over five innings in the no-decision, allowing four hits and walking two.

James (0-1) struck out a pair in his inning of work, while Sean Carey came on to get the final out of the ninth in relief of Lay and freshman Trevor Wilson allowed a hit and struck out three in his two scoreless innings.

Sacramento State's 15 hits were the most in a game since the Hornets finished with 16 in a 12-2 win at Utah Valley on May 10 of last season.

The Hornets and Hawks meet in game three of the series on Saturday (Feb. 21) at 2 p.m.