SACRAMENTO, Calif. — In the midst of a run that has the Hornets playing seven of eight on the road, the Sacramento State baseball team opens a week of four games away from the friendly confines of John Smith Field on Tuesday night (March 3) at 6 p.m., making the short jaunt down Highway 99 to face long-time rival Fresno State.
PLAY BALL!
WHAT: Sacramento State (3-8, 0-0 WAC) at Fresno State (6-4, 0-0 Mountain West)
WHEN: Tuesday, March 3, 2026
TIME: 6 PM PT
WHERE: Fresno, Calif.
STADIUM: Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium
WATCH: Mountain West Network
STATS: GoBulldogs.com
TICKETS: GoBulldogs.com
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
• Fresno State enters Tuesday's midweek contest with a 6-4 overall record after taking 2-of-3 from Stanford for the Bulldogs' first series win over the Cardinal in 27 years and has won five of its last six games overall
• Tuesday marks the first midweek game of the season for Fresno State after opening the regular season with a pair of four-game home series against Utah and Pepperdine prior to last weekend's tilts at Stanford
• The 'Dogs lost 2-of-3 in the series with the Utes after the scheduled series finale was canceled, then took 3-of-4 from the Waves
• Graduate outfielder Sky Collins leads the team with a .410 average over the first 10 games of the year, scoring 11 runs, collecting a team-high 16 hits, and driving in eight with a 1.038 OPS
• Five other Bulldog batters are hitting better than .300 on the year as the team his batting a collective .293 and outscoring opponents by an 85-57 count
• On the mound, Fresno State sports a 4.42 staff ERA, holding opposing hitters to a. .260 average while striking out 73 batters and walking 44 over 89.2 innings of work
• The staff has allowed double-digit hits in five of the team's 10 games, but has received support from an offense that has scored double digits in five of the team's last six outings and six times overall while averaging 8.5 runs per game this year
• Head Coach Ryan Overland, a former Bulldog player, is in his third full season at the helm of the Fresno State program after serving as the interim head coach in 2023 and the team's pitching coach for five years
SERIES NOTES
• One of the longest-running series in the history of the program, Tuesday marks the 181st meeting between the Hornets and Bulldogs according to available records
• In a series that dates all the way back to 1950, Fresno State holds a 139-40-1 overall record against Sacramento State, including a 61-24 lead in the series as Division I rivals
• The 180 meetings with the Bulldogs ranks fourth in terms of all-time meetings among Sacramento State opponents behind UC Davis (244), Pacific (187), and Nevada (186)
• The first recorded meeting between the two programs came on March 11, 1950, in Sacramento with the Bulldogs posting a 13-6 win in the opening game of a doubleheader that day and the Hornets answering with a 7-3 win in the nightcap
• Sacramento State and Fresno State split a pair of midweek contests in 2025 with the Bulldogs edging the Hornets, 3-2, at home and Sacramento State returning the favor at John Smith Field with a 4-3 win later in the year
• Fresno State holds a 73-16 record in games played on the Bulldogs' home field and has won the last two meetings there
• Sacramento State's last win in Fresno came in a 9-0 shutout on March 15, 2023
• Each of the last four head-to-head meetings have been decided by two runs or fewer — including the last three by a single run
• Sacramento State and Fresno State were conference rivals in the Western Athletic Conference from 1993-96 (8-16 overall) and, again, from 2006-12 (6-28 overall)
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State has faced all nine of the league's current baseball playing members, posting a combined 235-382-5 record
• Following Tuesday's game, the Hornets will have three more against Mountain West opponents this year, facing Nevada twice on April 6 (home) and April 28 (away) and one more at home against the Bulldogs (April 7)
• Not including games against the Mountain West's newest member in former WAC rival Grand Canyon, Sacramento State was 1-3 against the league in 2025, splitting with the Bulldogs and dropping a pair of midweek contests to Nevada
• The Hornets' 84 wins over Nevada are the most against any single Mountain West opponent in the program's history, followed by 48 against San Jose State and 40 against Fresno State
MIDWEEK MADNESS
• Tuesday marks the Hornets' second midweek game of the year after falling to Pacific, 8-7, back on Feb. 24 in Stockton, Calif.
• 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 25 midweek games, just over half (13) have been decided by two runs or fewer, with 10 of those 13 decided by a single run
• Since 2013, Sacramento State is 7-10 against Fresno State in midweek games with nine of those decided by two runs or fewer and five of those nine by a single run
LOOKING AHEAD
• Following Tuesday's clash in Fresno, Sacramento State will travel to play one of the biggest non-conference series in recent memory, heading to Baton Rouge to take on defending National Champion and No. 2-ranked LSU
• The series with the Tigers begins on Friday (March 6) at 4:30 p.m. PT, followed by a 4 p.m. PT start on Saturday (March 7), and an 11 a.m. PT first pitch on Sunday (March 8)
• All three games will be streamed on the SEC Network+ platform and links to follow along live are available on the baseball schedule page at HornetSports.com
HORNET SHORT HOPS
• Sacramento State is looking to bounce back from a weekend that saw the Hornets suffer a three-game sweep at the hands of Bay Area rival California in a home-and-home series
• Two of the three contests against the Golden Bears were decided by a single run as Sacramento State suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 walk-off defeat in the opener and rallied late before falling, 3-2, in the series finale
• Senior Jace Jeremiah was the Hornets' hot bat last week, finishing the four games with a .538 average (7-for-13) with two doubles, a home run, two runs scored, and four RBI
• He tallied multiple hits in all three games against California — including his first home run as a Hornet in the series opener that staked his team to an early 4-0 lead — and added a pinch-hit double at Pacific in a Wednesday midweek contest
• Jeremiah's four-game hitting streak is the longest active streak among Hornet hitters entering the week and is only one game back of Luis Pimentel-Guerrero's five-game run earlier this year
• Despite collecting only one hit on the week, sophomore Brett Ott found other ways to contribute to the offense, posting a .500 on-base percentage at the top of the Sacramento State lineup thanks to five walks and a pair of hit by pitches, leading to a pair of stolen bases and three runs scored
• He has reached base safely in his last nine games, getting on via a hit in four of those while drawing a walk in four of his last five contests
• Pimentel-Guerrero has been a pest to opposing pitching to start the year, reaching base safely in all 11 of the team's contests and hitting safely in seven of those, helping him to a team-high .333 average entering the week
• His four multi-hit games — which included a pair of two-hit contests in the final two games of the California series — are tied with teammate Erick Dessens for the most on the team
• Dessens has been the leading run-producer for the Hornets in the early-going, leading the team with 10 RBI — including multiple runs driven in three times
• Senior Ryan Ellis collected the first hits of his Sacramento State career in second game of the series against the Golden Bears, finishing 20for-4 with a run scored and an RBI
• Senior right-hander Ethan Lay threw his second "quality start" of the year in the opener against Cal, earning the no-decision after striking out three over six innings
• He enters the week ranked No. 37 in the nation — and second in the Western Athletic Conference — with 24 strikeouts overall
• After a rough showing in his season debut against UC Irvine on Valentine's Day, left-hander Sean Carey has been lights out in his last four appearances on the mound (5.2 innings) in relief, allowing just one run on two hits while striking out nine against only one walk
• He finished off a season-high 2.2 innings with four strikeouts in the finale against California
• The Hornet staff enters the week ranked No. 7 in the NCAA in fewest walks allowed per nine innings (2.53) and is No. 14 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.68)
• Junior right-hander Kurt Marton is tied for the national lead in both of those categories, standing as one of 16 qualifying pitchers nationally to have not walked a batter this year (while striking out 17 over 15.2 innings)
