SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Junior Jakob Poturnak's two-run single down the left field line capped a four-run fourth inning to complete a Hornet comeback from down three and freshman right-hander Trevor Wilson was masterful over five innings of relief, helping the Sacramento State baseball team to its first Western Athletic Conference series win of the year thanks to a 9-5 victory over Utah Valley on Saturday afternoon at John Smith Field.
The Hornets (15-22, 3-3 WAC) won for the fourth time in their last six games and won the regular season series with the Wolverines for the sixth consecutive meeting dating back to 2021. Utah Valley fell to 15-19 overall and 1-2 in league play, dropping their opening conference series of the year.
Entering the game with two outs in the fourth and his team down three, Wilson (2-4) shut down the Wolverine offense, retiring the first 15 batters he faced into the ninth inning before back-to-back two-out walks ended his day. Kurt Marton then shut the door with the tying run on deck, inducing a pop-up that was caught by Poturnak across the diamond near the first base line to end the game, leaving runners on second and third.
Wilson went five innings with allowing a hit nor a run, walking two and striking out four. The five-inning performance was a career high for the freshman while the four strikeouts are tied for his second-highest total of the season.
The Hornets were out of the gate quickly with a pair in the first, loading the bases with two outs thanks to walks by Ryan Ellis and Poturnak around a single to center by Erick Dessens. That brought Jace Jeremiah to the plate, who worked the count even before hitting a ball that ricocheted off the Wolverine pitcher's foot and eluded the shortstop for a single, scoring a pair for the 2-0 lead.
Utah Valley answered quickly and threatened to open the floodgates with five unanswered runs, scoring two on a two-run home run in the second, another on a solo shot and RBI single in the third, and adding a fifth on a run-scoring double in the fourth.
That's when Sacramento State rallied against reliever Cooper LIttledike (1-2) using back-to-back one-out singles by Nikhil Beasley and Brett Ott to put runners at the corners. Sam Harry then lifted a fly ball to right, deep enough to score Beasley to make it a two-run game, and was followed by Ellis, who doubled into the right field corner to score Ott and make it 5-4.
Erick Dessens was then intentionally walked and Luis Pimentel-Guerrero reached on a infield single back to the mound to bring up Poturnak, who smashed a single down the left field line that took a big hop over the third baseman's glove, allowing two runs to score and give the Hornets a 6-5 lead.
Sacramento State continued to tack on single runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings as Ott added a sacrifice fly of his own followed by an RBI single from Poturnak and an RBI double by Ellis for the final 9-5 margin.
Ellis (both doubles), Pimentel-Guerrero, and Poturnak each finished with two hits on the day, while Poturnak (three) and Ellis (two) combined for five RBI.
The Hornets close out a six-game homestand on Tuesday (April 14) as they host San Francisco at 6 p.m., then return to WAC play with a trip to Texas and a three-game series against UT Arlington on April 17-19.
