BATON ROUGE, La. — Junior Cameron Sewell finished with a pair of hits, including a grand slam and five RBI, and the Hornets withstood a late-inning rally from No. 2 LSU as Sacramento State took game two of its three-game series with the Tigers by a 5-4 score on Saturday afternoon at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La.
Saturday's victory marked the highest-ranked team that the Hornets have defeated under Head Coach Reggie Christiansen, surpassing a 2-1 win over No. 3 UCLA on March 3, 2019, and the highest-ranked victory since Sacramento State took down No. 2 Stanford, 2-1, on April 24, 2004.
After the Tigers banged out 15 runs on 14 hits in a seven-inning win in the series opener, junior right-hander Kurt Marton and the Hornet bullpen limited LSU to just three hits — including carrying a combined one-hit shutout into the eighth. Marton allowed only a second-inning single and worked around three walks — his first three free passes of the season — while striking out four over 4.1 innings of a no-decision, stranding five.
Sean Carey (1-0) picked up the win in relief, throwing 2.2 innings of hitless, scoreless baseball while striking out four to get Sacramento State into the eighth inning. The next three relievers muscled the Hornets through the next 1.1 innings before freshman Trevor Wilson came on to get the final two outs and nail down his second career save.
Meanwhile, Sewell's big day started early as he followed a lead-off single by Luis Pimentel-Guerrero with a two-out, two-strike double down the right field line, easily scoring Pimentel-Guerrero for the 1-0 lead.
The Tigers put runners on the four of the next five innings, but came up empty, setting the stage for all-important Sewell's big blast in the eighth. A one-out walk to Jakob Poturnak was followed by a two-out single to left by Jace Jeremiah and a pinch-hit walk to Orlando Cobarrubias to load the bases.
Following the second pitching change of the inning for LSU, Sewell worked the count even before launching a 2-2 pitch over the wall in right centerfield for his first home run of the season — and his second career grand slam as a Hornet — for the 5-0 advantage.
Sewell became the first Sacramento State slugger with a grand slam since JP Smith hit one at San Francsico on Feb. 17, 2025, and it was his first since clearing the fence with the bases loaded at Seattle U on April 14, 2024.
Back-to-back walks to start the home half of the eighth began the Tiger rally as the home team plated three runs to break up the shutout on an RBI double, a wild pitch, and a throwing error that made it 5-3. A pinch-hit home run to lead off the ninth made it a one-run game and LSU got the tying and winning runs on base thanks to back-to-back walks, but Wilson struck out Zach Yorke and induced Seth Dardar into a game-ending fly out to center to nail down the win.
Sam Harry and Erick Dessens also had hits for the Hornets, while both Poturnak and Jacob Cortez picked up a pair of walks each while the Sacramento State pitching staff combined to strand 10 runners on base for the game.
Tiger starter Cooper Moore (3-1) suffered his first loss of the year, allowing the first run of the game on four hits, walking three and striking out four.
The series concludes on Sunday morning (March 8) with an 11 a.m. PT first pitch.
