DAVIS, Calif. — Freshman Sam Harry finished a double short of the cycle and joined junior teammate Erick Dessens with a team-high three hits, while four Hornet pitchers combined to strand nine UC Davis runners on base as the Sacramento State baseball team handed the Aggies a 7-1 defeat on Wednesday night at Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium.
The victory improved the Hornets to 19-23 overall on the year, winning for the eighth time in their last 11 contests and posting their 150th win in the history of the long-running series. UC Davis fell to 17-21 overall with the loss.
Harry became the fifth Sacramento State hitter to just miss out on the cycle this season, joining teammates Luis Pimentel-Guerrero (Feb. 22 vs. Saint Joseph's), Jakob Poturnak (March 11 vs. Pacific), Erick Dessens (March 14-15 vs. Pacific), and Brett Ott (March 16 vs. Pacific). However, Harry became the first to fall a double short of the cycle as the previous five efforts were all missing a triple.
Dessens logged his team-best 19th multi-hit game of the year and his 10th with at least three hits, while Harry collected his 16th such performance, including his fifth three-hit contest. Jace Jeremiah and Cameron Sewell also added a pair of knocks to help power the 12-hit attack.
Meanwhile, on the mound, the quartet of starter Konner Entz, Chase Sorlie, Sean Carey, and Colin Hunter combined to handcuff the Aggie bats, scattering eight hits and stranding nine runners — four of those in scoring position. Just two UC Davis baserunners reached over the final three innings.
Entz gave up one run on four hits while striking out two over the first three innings before giving way to Sorlie, who followed with two-thirds of an inning, and Carey (2-2), who came in and allowed just one hit and struck out two over his two innings of work en route to the win.
Hunter then finished off the night with 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out a pair to collect his first career save.
Wasting little time in getting onto the scoreboard, Harry took the second pitch of the game over the wall in straight-away centerfield to put the Hornets up early, 1-0, slugging his third home run of the season. He became the first Hornet to lead-off a game with a home run since Josh Rolling did so at Nevada on April 5, 2022.
UC Davis finally broke through with a run in the third on a sacrifice fly, but Sacramento State quickly recovered and used a big fifth inning to break the game wide open.
A walk to Jeremiah and a hit-and-run single by Sewell put runners at the corners with nobody out before a passed ball with Nikhil Beasley at the plate allowed Jeremiah to scurry home for a 2-1 lead. Ott drove Sewell home with an RBI single and he came around to score when Harry dropped a triple to the wall in left centerfield to make it 4-1.
After a pitching change, a wild pitch made it a four-run inning and a four-run advantage for the Hornets.
Sacramento State tacked on single runs in the sixth and ninth innings as Jeremiah launched his second home run as a Hornet over the wall in left to make it 6-1 and was followed by Harry's RBI single in the final inning to cap the scoring after back-to-back singles and a stolen base put a pair in scoring position for the freshman.
Wednesday's 12 hits marked the team's third-straight game — and the fifth in the last six contests — with 10-or-more in that category.
Now on their bye week in the Western Athletic Conference schedule, the Hornets wing their way to Southern California on Thursday in advance of a three-game series against No. 1 UCLA beginning Friday (April 24) and running through the weekend. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the opener, followed by start times of 2 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday (April 25) and Sunday (April 26), respectively.
