SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State baseball team hits the road for one of the biggest non-conference series in recent memory, winging its way to Baton Rouge, La., to take on No. 2 LSU in a three-game series.

The Hornets open on Friday (March 6) at 4:30 p.m. PT, followed by a 4 p.m. PT start for game two on Saturday (March 7). The series concludes with an 11 a.m. PT first pitch on Sunday (March 8). All three of this weekend's games will be streamed live on the SEC Network+ platform.

PLAY BALL!
WHAT: Sacramento State (3-9, 0-0 WAC) at #2 LSU (11-3, 0-0 SEC)
WHEN: Friday-Sunday, March 6-8, 2026
TIME: 4:30 PM PT (Fri.) / 4 PM PT (Sat.) / 11 AM PT (Sun.)
WHERE: Baton Rouge, La.
STADIUM: Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field

FOLLOW:
Game 1: SEC Network+ | Live Stats
Game 2: SEC Network+ | Live Stats
Game 3: SEC Network+ | Live Stats

GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | LSU | Western Athletic Conference

PROBABLE STARTERS
Game 1: RHP Ethan Lay (3 GS, 0-0, 2.29 ERA) at RHP Casen Evans (3 GS, 0-0, 5.27 ERA)
Game 2: RHP Kurt Marton (2 GS, 1-1, 2.30 ERA) at RHP Cooper Moore (3 GS, 3-0, 2.33 ERA)
Game 3: RHP Carson Timothy (3 GS, 0-1, 2.45 ERA) at RHP William Schmidt (3 GS, 3-0, 1.65 ERA)

IN THE RANKINGS
• LSU enters the week ranked as the unanimous No. 2 team in the nation by Baseball America, D1 Baseball, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and the USA Today coaches poll

ABOUT THE TIGERS
• No. 2 LSU enters the week with an 11-3 overall record and an 8-2 mark at home, but the Tigers have lost their last two games against Northeastern (13-10) on Monday (March 2) and Louisiana (7-2) on Wednesday (March 4)
• LSU opened the year with eight straight victories against Milwaukee (3), Kent State, Nicholls, Indiana, Notre Dame, and UCF, before falling in a midweek contest against McNeese State
• Junior outfielder Jake Brown is one of three Tigers batting better than .300 on the year, hitting .400 with a 1.188 OPS to start the year, scoring 14 runs, slugging five home runs and driving in 20
• Of the team's 140 hits, 51 of those have gone for extra bases, including 20 home runs off the bats of eight different players
• Sophomore outfielder Derek Curiel (.333) and junior infielder Trent Caraway (.310) are also hitting better than .300 on the year and have combined to drive in 26 runs
• All told, as a team, the Tigers are hitting .304 with a .941 OPS, outscoring opponents by a 126-64 count through 14 games
• Junior RHP Cooper Moore (3-0, 2.33 ERA), who is scheduled for Saturday's start, and sophomore RHP William Schmidt (3-0, 1.65 ERA), who is scheduled for Sunday, are both unbeaten in three starts this year
• Moore leads the staff with 27 strikeouts against only two walks, with Schmidt right behind him with 25 strikeouts
• Friday's scheduled starter, sophomore RHP Casan Evans, is winless in three starts with a 5.27 ERA, but has struck out 21 over 13.2 innings and held opponents to a .204 average
• As a staff, LSU sports a 4.16 ERA and has struck out 182 against 51 walks over 119 innings and is holding opponents to a .215 average

SERIES NOTABLES
• This weekend marks the second all-time series between Sacramento State and LSU
• The Tigers took 2-of-3 from the Hornets in Baton Rouge, La., in 2016, with the Hornets posting a 5-4 win in game two in between 6-0 and 11-1 wins by LSU in games one and three

CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State has faced four current members of the SEC in baseball, but faced two of them during their time as members of the Big 12
• The Hornets are 2-1 against Auburn, winning the final two games of a three-game road set by the scores of 6-5 and 7-6 (12 innings) in 2016
• Sacramento State is 1-2 against both Texas and Texas A&M, losing 2-of-3 against the Longhorns in 2013 and 2-of-3 to the Aggies in 2014 -- both series coming on the road

HORNETS VS. THE TOP 25
• Ranked No. 2 in the nation, LSU is the highest-ranked opponent for the Hornets since they faced No. 1 Arizona on Feb. 29-March 2, 2008
• The Hornets are 20-36 against ranked opponents under Head Coach Reggie Christiansen dating back to the 2011 campaign 
• Sacramento State is 6-4 in the team's last 10 dating back to a three-game road sweep of then-No. 6 Long Beach State in 2022, with the Hornets also posting wins over No. 9 Stanford, No. 22 UC Santa Barbara, and No. 17 Oregon in that stretch
• Since 2011, Sacramento State has faced nine teams ranked among the top 10 at the time of the game and played 13 weekend series against a top-25 opponent
• The Hornets have won at least one game against a nationally ranked opponent in 11 of the 14 full seasons under Coach Christiansen (excluding the 2020 pandemic season), including four wins against ranked opposition in 2014
• Sacramento State posted a 2-1 win over No. 3 UCLA on March 3, 2019, for the highest-ranked victory under Christiansen

MILLENNIAL MILESTONE
• Sacramento State enters the 2026 season needing just 14 more victories to reach 1,000 all-time wins in the program's Division I history
• Since it's first full Division I season in 1990, the Hornets have posted a 986-1,069-4 record

KEEPING CLOSE
• If the ball bounces the Hornets' way a couple of times, this year's record may look a little different
• Of Sacramento State's nine defeats, four of those have been by a single run with another decided by two scores

SAFETY DANCE
• Senior Luis Pimentel-Guerrero has been a pest to opposing pitchers to start the 2026 season, reaching base safely in each of the team's first 12 games
• He has hit safely in eight of those 12 contests, walking in two others, and being hit by a pitch twice to keep the streak alive
• Pimentel-Guerrero has hits in each of his last three games, batting .417 (5-for-12) in that stretch
• The 12-game run is the second-longest of his Hornet career after he went 19 straight games of getting on base last season in his first year with the program
• His nine walks are tied with teammate Brett Ott for the most on the team entering the weekend -- a category where he ranked second on the team at the end of the 2025 season

IN YOUR JACE!
• Senior Jace Jeremiah carries a team-best five-game hitting streak into this weekend's series at LSU, posting multiple hits in three of those
• Jeremiah, who had only one hit in his first six games as a Hornet, is batting .500 (8-for-16) over his last five outings with a pair of runs scored, two doubles, a home run, and four RBI

YOU "OTT"-A KNOW
• Third-year sophomore Brett Ott also has quite a streak on his hands
• Before sitting out Tuesday's game at Fresno State, Ott has a nine-game run of reaching base safely, hitting safely in four straight, drawing walks in four more, and hit by a pitch twice in the second game of the series against California
• Ott has drawn a walk in four of his last five games, including a pair of free passes in three of the four contests

WELCOME BACK
• Senior right-hander Elijah Rogalski made his return to the mound on Tuesday night at Fresno State, throwing a perfect inning on 15 pitches
• Due to injuries in back-to-back seasons, it was Rogalski's first inning of work since making his first career start as a Hornet on Feb. 16 against Loyola Marymount, throwing 3.1 innings and allowing a run on three hits while striking out four

"FIRE" STARTERS
• Sacramento State's usual weekend rotation of senior RHP Ethan Lay, junior RHP Kurt Marton, and sophomore RHP Carson Timothy have been nearly untouchable to start the season
• The Hornet trio has combined for a 2.08 ERA over 43.1 innings of work, allowing just 10 earned runs and striking out 47 against only eight walks
• Combined, opposing batters are hitting just .198 (32-for-162) against those three arms

WALK THE WALK
• The Hornets' staff enters the weekend having walked only 29 hitters while striking out 109 through the first 12 games, ranking No. 8 in the NCAA in fewest walks allowed per nine innings (2.53), No. 13 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.68), and No. 21 in WHIP (1.15)

KURT PUTTING THE HURT ON HITTERS
• In 15.2 innings over four appearances, Marton has yet to walk a batter (yep, we probably just jinxed that), standing as one of six qualifying pitchers across in the country with at least 15 innings pitched to have not issued a free pass
• He shares the nation lead in both strikeout-to-walk ratio and fewest walks per nine innings
• Among Western Athletic Conference leaders, Marton is seventh in the league in ERA (2.30), 10th in opponent batting average (.237), sixth in innings (15.2), and seventh in strikeouts (17)

IN "LAY"-MAN'S TERMS
• Lay enters the weekend's series as one of the WAC's top strikeout artists, ranking second in the conference with 24 on the year -- just one off the leader and ranking No. 38 in the NCAA
• His 2.29 ERA ranks sixth in the league while the senior also stands among the top 10 with a .189 opponent batting average (4th) and leads the league in innings pitched (19.2)
• The senior bolstered his total with 13 strikeouts -- without a walk -- while carrying a perfect game into the seventh inning in game two against Saint Joseph's, setting a new career high
• He became the 16th Hornet in school history to strikeout at least 13 batters in a game and the first since Travis Adams (who made his Major League debut with the Minnesota Twins last summer) finished with 13 at Northern Colorado in 2021
• That performance marked Lay's second double-digit strikeout game of his Sacramento State career after striking out 11 against Pacific on March 9 of last year
• He has also struck out eight-or-more batters in a game five times as a Hornet

"QUALITY" YOU CAN COUNT ON
• Lay logged his second "quality start" of the year at California last weekend, throwing six innings in a no-decision against the Golden Bears
• It was the ninth such start of this career after doing so a team-high seven times last season
• Marton shares the team lead with Lay with two such starts in each of his first two appearances on the mound for Sacramento State, throwing six shutout innings against UC Irvine (2/14) and allowing just two runs over 6.2 innings with nine strikeouts against Saint Joseph's

STAND ON 21
• The Hornets' 21 runs scored in the series finale against Saint Joseph's were the most in a single game since a 21-9 victory over Nevada in 2024
• Those 21 runs came on 22 hits -- which were also a season high and the most since Sacramento State finished with 23 in a game-two victory at Grand Canyon on May 3 of last season
• Entering the week, the 21 runs and the 22 hits are the most by any WAC team in a game this year

STRIKE FIRST! STRIKE HARD! NO MERCY, SIR!
• Sacramento State has gotten out of the gates quickly this year, outscoring opponents 23-8 in the first three innings of a game
• 15 of the team's 53 runs this year have come in the second inning alone
• The Hornets have scored first in all three of their wins this season