SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Continuing a run that, eventually, will see them play 12 games in a 16-day span, the Sacramento State baseball team stays on the road for one more game, traveling to San Francisco for a 2 p.m. contest with the Dons on Tuesday (March 17) at Benedetti Diamond.

PLAY BALL!
WHAT: San Francisco (9-9, 0-0 WCC) at Sacramento State (7-13, 0-0 WAC)
WHEN: Tuesday, March 16, 2026
TIME: 2 PM PT
WHERE: San Francisco, Calif.
STADIUM: Benedetti Diamond
WATCH: ESPN+
STATS: USFDons.com
GAME NOTES: San Francisco | Western Athletic Conference

ABOUT THE DONS
• San Francisco enters the week with a 9-9 overall record after dropping two of three in a series at UC Riverside last weekend
• The Dons won the middle game, 6-4, in between losses in game one (7-3) and game three (6-5)
• San Francisco has rarely left the friendly confines of Benedetti Diamond this season, having played 13 of its 18 games thus far at home
• Sophomore catcher Brendan Burke enters the week as the team's leading hitter, batting .296 with a pair of doubles, a home run, and seven RBI
• Graduate infielder TJ Rogers, leads the team with three home runs to go with a .269 average, 12 runs scored, and nine RBI, while junior outfielder Wyatt Davis has driven in a team-high 11
• As a team, the Dons are batting .247, slugging .346, and posting an on-base percentage of .360 on the year
• As a staff, San Francisco sports a 4.88 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP with 141 strikeouts against 82 walks
• Opponents are batting .270 against Dons pitching

SERIES NOTES
• San Francisco leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 73-65-1
• The two teams split a four-game home-and-home series to kick-off the 2025 season with the Hornets posting wins in games one (4-3) and four (19-11) and the Dons winning the middle two (8-5 and 15-7)
• The two schools have split the last 10 meetings against one another evenly
• San Francisco is 37-28 at home against Sacramento State, having won five of the last eight
• However, the Hornets' three wins in that stretch have come in the last five meetings at Benedetti Diamond

CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is a combined 320-326-4 (.495) against the current West Coast Conference baseball lineup, having faced all 10 of the league's members
• The Hornets have only two more games against WCC schools on the diamond this year, with midweek games against San Francisco on March 17 (away) and April 14 (home) 
• Sacramento State was a combined 6-4 against the WCC last season, going 3-1 against Pacific, 2-2 against San Francisco, and 1-1 against Saint Mary's
• That record does not include a 2-1 series win over Seattle U as the Redhawks were members of the WAC in 2025 prior to aligning with the WCC last summer
• The 107 wins against Pacific are the most for the Hornets against any one WCC school, followed by 66 wins against Saint Mary's and 65 more against San Francisco

MIDWEEK MADNESS
• Tuesday's game at San Francisco marks the fifth midweek game for the Hornets this year
• Sacramento State claimed its first midweek win with a 10-0 seven-inning victory over Pacific on March 11, improving to 1-3 in midweek contests in 2026
• It was the first midweek victory for the Hornets since an 8-2 victory at UC Davis back on April 15 of last season
• Sacramento State was just 3-8 in 11 midweek games last season
• Five of those were decided by a single run, with another ending in a two-run defeat
• The Hornets were 1-4 in those five single-run midweek contests
• Of the team's last 28 midweek games, half (14) have been decided by two runs or fewer, with 10 of those 14 decided by a single run

LOOKING AHEAD
• Following Tuesday's trip to The Bay, the Hornets have a quick turnaround and host a three-game series against Winthrop out of the Big South Conference beginning Thursday (March 19) and running through Saturday (March 21)
• First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday, with a 2 p.m. start scheduled for Saturday
• The first two games will be streamed live on the ESPN+ platform, with Saturday's finale shown exclusively on WAC International

HORNET SHORT HOPS
• Sacramento State enters the week with a 7-13 overall record after splitting four games with Pacific and falling in a midweek contest with UMass Lowell last week
• Both of Sacramento State's wins against the Tigers were of the run-rule variety — the team's first such wins since a 12-2 seven-inning win at Utah Valley on May 10 of last year — improving to 2-1 in run-rule games this year
• Of the team's 13 defeats this year, seven have been decided by two runs or fewer with five of those coming by a single run
• Thanks to the 10 runs on March 11 against Pacific and 18 more against the Tigers on Sunday, the Hornets have now reached double-digit runs three times this season, while collecting double-digit hits in three of the four contests against Pacific to bring that total to six
• The 18 runs and 18 hits in Sunday's finale are also the second-most in either category against an opponent this year behind the 21 runs and 22 hits in the finale against Saint Joseph's
• Sacramento State's seven-run second inning against Pacific on Sunday were the most runs scored in a single inning this year and the most since the Hornets scored seven in the seventh of a 9-2 win at Utah Valley on May 11 of last year
• Brett Ott nearly had himself a share of the school record on Sunday, scoring five runs from the lead-off position as part of his three-hit day, falling just one short of the school record of six runs scored set by Shawn McGuire against Pacific on March 8, 1997
• Jace Jeremiah has reached base safely in 13 consecutive games entering the week — the longest such streak by a Hornet hitter this year
• Erick Dessens extended his team-best hitting streak to eight consecutive games, while Jeremiah has now hit safely in each of his last seven
• Jakob Poturnak (six games) and Luis Pimentel-Guerrero (five games) also extended hitting streaks of their own over the weekend
• With home runs by Dessens (his fourth) and Ott (the first of his career), the Hornets posted their first multi-home run game of the year in the finale with Pacific
• Both Dessens and Ott came achingly close to hitting for the cycle over the weekend with Dessens falling a triple short in both games two and three against the Tigers and Ott missing out on the triple in the finale
• Those two join Pimentel-Guerrero (Feb. 22 vs. Saint Joseph's) and Poturnak (March 11 vs. Pacific) as Hornets who have come close to the cycle this year
• Dessens loved hitting against Pacific pitching in the five games against the Tigers this year, batting .522 (12-for-23) with five runs, three doubles, three home runs, and 13 RBI, slugging 1.043 and posting a .560 on-base percentage
• Jeremiah also fared well against the Tigers, batting .533 (8-for-15) with three runs, two doubles, and seven RBI while walking four times
• When they weren't slapping the ball all around the field, Sacramento State drew nine walks in the finale with the Tigers, tying the team's season high in the category set against Saint Joseph's (Feb. 22) and matched in the first meeting of the year against Pacific (Feb. 25)
• Those nine walks as a team were the most since the Hornets walked nine times in the series finale against UC Riverside on April 27 of last season
• Sophomore RHP Jackson Halverson set a career-high with four strikeouts in two hitless and scoreless  innings of relief in the weekend opener against Pacific
• Freshman RHP Trevor Wilson did the same in the series finale, striking out a career-high five over three innings against the Tigers
• All told over the weekend, the Hornets' bullpen was solid, holding Pacific to a .126 (12-for-95) average and striking out 21 against only seven walks
• Defensively, the Hornets have been sound as of late, not committing an error in each of their last four games