ARLINGTON, Texas — Senior right-hander Ethan Lay scattered five hits over seven shutout innings while junior Erick Dessens and senior Luis Pimentel-Guerrero provided the only runs Sacramento State needed on the night as the visiting Hornets won the 1,000th game in the program's Division I history with a 2-1 victory over host UT Arlington on Friday night at Clay Gould Ballpark.

Sacramento State has now won three straight, and six of eight overall, improving to 17-22 overall and 4-3 in league play. It is the second time this season that the Hornets have won three consecutive games, matching a similar run on March 15-19 against Pacific, San Francisco, and Winthrop.

The Mavericks, who had the winning run on base in the ninth with nobody out, fell to 14-22 overall and 3-4 in conference.

Lay (4-1) posted his seventh "quality start" of the year — and the 14th such start in his career — striking out a pair and walking only one while getting 11 of his remaining 19 outs on ground balls, including a double play to end the first. He retired six-in-a-row at one point and stranded five UTA baserunners — two of those in scoring position.

Dessens finished 3-for- 4 with a pair of doubles, a triple, a run scored, and an RBI, logging his 17th multi-hit game of the season and his ninth with at least three hits. Freshman Sam Harry and senior Jace Jeremiah each doubled and added a pair of hits, while Cameron Sewell finished with the only other hit of the night for the Hornets.

Sacramento State was the first on the board in the first as Harry doubled to lead-off the game, was sacrificed to third, and scored when Dessens dropped a double on the chalk down the left field line for a 1-0 lead. 

It would stay that way until the sixth when the Hornets doubled their lead. Dessens led-off with a triple to the wall in right center field and scored two pitches later when Pimentel-Guerrero's fly ball in foul territory down the left field line was caught, hit deep enough to allow Dessens to sprint home from third to make it 2-0.

UT Arlington made a game of it by halving the Hornets' lead in the eighth after a lead-off triple and a single to right made it 2-1, and the Mavericks had one more rally in them in the ninth, threatening to walk it off.

Facing reliever Elijah Rogalski, who came on to get the final out of the eighth, UTA fashioned a lead-off walk and an infield single into a bonafide scoring threat before the defense took over. A sacrifice attempt back to the mound turned into an out at third as Rogalski pounced and erased the lead runner then, two pitches later, he induced a ground ball to the right side that turned into a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

The save was the first of Rogalski's Sacramento State career, needing only 11 pitches to close out the night.

Mavericks' starter Caylon Dygert (3-4) took the loss, allowing the two runs on seven hits and striking out two over seven innings before giving way to Merek Sears, who allowed one hit and struck out three over the final two frames.

Friday marked the 16th time in 17 victories that the Hornets have scored first and are 16-8 overall when scoring first this season. Sacramento State also had a number of chances to break it open, but left seven runners on base, five of those in scoring position, and three of those at third base.

Game two of the series, originally scheduled for a Noon PT first pitch, will now begin at 4 p.m. PT due to impending rain in the forecast.