SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Winners of eight of its last 11 games, the streaking Sacramento State baseball team wings its way to Southern California this weekend, taking on No. 1 UCLA in a three-game series on April 24-26 at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. Friday's opener is slated for 6 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. first pitch on Saturday, and a 1 p.m. start for Sunday's series finale. All three games will be streamed live on the Big Ten Network Plus platform.

PLAY BALL!
WHAT: Sacramento State (19-23, 5-4 WAC) at UCLA (37-3, 21-0 Big Ten)
WHEN: Friday-Sunday, April 24-26, 2026
TIME: 6 PM PT (Fri.) / 2 PM PT (Sat.) / 1 PM PT (Sun.)
WHERE: Los Angeles, Calif.
STADIUM: Jackie Robinson Stadium
FOLLOW:
Game 1:  Big Ten Plus | Live Stats
Game 2:  Big Ten Plus | Live Stats
Game 3:  Big Ten Plus | Live Stats

GAME NOTES: Sacramento State | UCLA | Western Athletic Conference

PROBABLE STARTERS
Fri.: RHP Ethan Lay (10 GS, 4-1, 1.93 ERA) at RHP Wylan Moss (0 GS, 4-0, 1.57 ERA)
Sat.: RHP Kurt Marton (6 GS, 3-3, 4.71 ERA) at RHP Michael Barnett (10 GS, 6-0, 3.35 ERA)
Sun.: RHP Carson Timothy (10 GS, 2-4, 4.23 ERA) at RHP Landon Stump (10 GS, 2-0, 3.13 ERA)

THAT'S RANK
• UCLA is the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation by Baseball America, D1 Baseball, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, and the USA Today Coaches poll.

ABOUT THE BRUINS
• UCLA enters the week with a 37-3 overall record and a perfectly unblemished 21-0 mark in Big Ten Conference play
• The Bruins had won a nation-leading and school-record 27 consecutive games until falling to UC Santa Barbara, 4-0, on April 14 -- the team's first loss since Feb. 24
• They then followed that up with a series sweep of conference rival Minnesota and a midweek win over Hawai'i
• The Bruins are 23-3 at home and a perfect 11-0 on the road while winning a trio of games on a neutral field at the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series in Arlington, Texas, in late February
• As a team, UCLA is hitting .303 with 67 home runs, a .511 slugging percentage, and a .428 on-base percentage
• Four regulars are batting better than .300 on the year
• As a staff, Bruin pitchers sport a combined 3.11 ERA, striking out 403 against 127 walks over 356 innings and holding opponents to a .219 average
• UCLA is second in the NCAA in ERA and WHIP (1.16), eighth in fewest hits per nine innings (7.23), and ninth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.17) and fewest walks per nine (3.21), while ranking among the top 25 in eight other categories

SERIES NOTABLES
• The Bruins lead the all-time series with Sacramento State, 9-2
• Of those 11 meetings, all but two have been played in Los Angeles
• The Hornets are just 1-8 against UCLA on the road, posting their lone win by a 2-1 score on March 3, 2019
• Sacramento State's only other win in the series came back on May 9, 1992, by a 10-7 score at home
• This weekend marks the first meeting between the two programs since they went head-to-head at the Southern California Baseball Classic in 2023
• The Hornets led 2-0 in the fourth inning of that contest before the Bruins scored three unanswered to win the one-run contest
• Three of the last four meetings in the series have been decided by a single run
• This weekend marks only the third three-game series between the two after they played two games on back-to-back days in Los Angeles in 1990 and, again, in 1992 in Sacramento

HORNETS VS. THE TOP 25
• The Bruins are the second top-five opponent for the Hornets this year after Sacramento State traveled to Baton Rouge, La., and took 2-of-3 from then No. 2-ranked LSU
• This weekend marks the first time that the Hornets will meet the top-ranked team in the nation since they faced No. 1 Arizona on Feb. 29-March 2, 2008
• Sacramento State is 22-37 against nationally ranked opponents under Head Coach Reggie Christiansen dating back to the 2011 campaign
• The Hornets are 5-5 in the team's last 10 contests against ranked opposition dating back to 2023, posting wins over the likes of No. 9 Stanford, No. 17 Oregon, and No. 22 UC Santa Barbara to go along with the road wins at LSU
• Sacramento State has won at least one game against a nationally ranked opponent in 12 of the 15 full seasons under Christiansen (excluding the 2020 pandemic season, including four wins over top 25 opponents in 2014
• The two wins over LSU marked the highest-ranked team that the Hornets have defeated under Christiansen, surpassing a win over No. 3 UCLA on March 3, 2019, and the highest-ranked victory for them since taking down No. 2 Stanford, 2-1, on April 24, 2004
• The series win over the Tigers marked the program's first since sweeping No. 6 Long Beach State in 2022

KEEPING IT 1,000
• With its win in the series opener at UT Arlington last week, Sacramento State reached 1,000 all-time Division I victories in the program's history
• Since it's first full Division I season in 1990, the Hornets have posted a 1,002-1,061-4 record

AND THE AWARD GOES TO
• Senior RHP Ethan Lay was named as one of 43 semifinalists from across the country for this year's College Baseball Foundation National Pitcher of the Year Award on Wednesday (April 22)
• Lay and teammate junior RHP Kurt Marton were two or more than 140 Division I pitchers named to the initial watch list back on March 11
• This week, Lay earned his second Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week award -- and the third of his career -- following his performance in the series opener at UT Arlington
• He won his first award of the season back on March 23 following eight shutout innings vs. Winthrop
• Junior outfielder Erick Dessens was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the first time in his career on April 6 following a red-hot weekend at Utah Tech in the Hornets' WAC opening series
• It was the first award for a Sacramento State player since Tyler White was named the league's player of the week on March 3, 2025

TEAM TIDBITS
• Sacramento State is on its bye week from Western Athletic Conference play and is coming off its second league series win after taking 2-of-3 from UT Arlington last weekend after taking 2-of-3 from reigning conference tournament champion Utah Valley the week before
• The bye week comes at the midway point of the league season with the Hornets still to host Abilene Christian and Tarleton State around a trip to California Baptist
• Sacramento State is fresh off a 7-1 win over rival UC Davis on Wednesday (April 22) as the Hornets collected 12 hits while four hurlers limited the Aggies to just eight hits and stranded nine runners
• The win snapped a four-game losing streak against Big West Conference teams and improved Sacramento State to 6-5 in midweek games -- the most midweek wins since it won six in 2024
• With their 12 hits on Wednesday against UC Davis, the Hornets have now posted 10-or-more hits in five of their last six games and 19 times overall this year
• Sacramento State is 15-6 when it out-hits its opponents
• The Hornets have scored first in 18 of their 19 wins and are 9-2 when scoring in the first inning
• Sacramento State has played 10 one-run games this year and 18 decided by two runs or fewer
• When Sacramento State hits a home run this season, it is definitely getting its money's worth as 20 of its 27 long balls have been multi-run home runs
• The only solo homers have come from Dessens against Saint Joseph's (2/19), Poturnak against Pacific (3/11) and in game one against Utah Valley (4/10), both Harry and Dessens against Nevada (4/6), and Harry and Jace Jeremiah at UC Davis (4/22)
• Sacramento State has hit nine two-run home runs, nine three-run blasts, and two grand slams
• 17 of the team's 26 home runs have come in the first four innings and the Hornets are 13-6 this year when leaving the yard compared to just 4-17 when they don't
• Both of the team's grand slams have come in the eighth inning or later
• This marks the ninth consecutive season (not counting the 2020 pandemic year) that the Hornets have hit at least one grand slam, and the seventh time that they have hit multiple grand slams in a single year
• Sacramento State has started quickly, scoring 101 of its 254 runs (39.7 percent) in the first three innings this season, outscoring opponents by a 101-71 count
• 53 of those 254 runs this year have come in the second inning alone -- the most of than any inning 
• Sacramento State has posted a "big inning" (four or more runs) 21 times this season, finishing 12-5 in games in which they have done so
• The seven-run second inning in the series finale against Pacific on March 15 were the most in single inning this season and the most since the Hornets put up seven in the seventh inning of a 9-2 win at Utah Valley on May 11 of last year
• With it's 11-1 win in seven innings in game two of the series at UT Arlington, Sacramento State improved to 4-4 in run-rule games this year
• Sacramento State is 15-5 this season when scoring six-or-more runs

HORNETS AT THE PLATE
• Junior outfielder Erick Dessens, senior infielder Jace Jeremiah, and junior infielder Cameron Sewell all enter the weekend with six-game hitting streaks
• Dessens is batting .500 (12-for-24) during his run, scoring eight runs, and driving in five
• Of his 12 hits in that stretch, six have gone for extra bases (five doubles and a triple)
• Dessens has multiple hits in four of those six contests -- including three-hit games in the opener against UT Arlington and three more against UC Davis
• He now has a team-high 19 multi-hit games on the year -- 10 of those with three-or-more hits -- and leads the team with 14 multi-RBI contests, including nine with three-or-more RBI
• Jeremiah is batting .429 (9-for-21) during his six-game streak, scoring five times and driving in six
• He slugged his second home run as a Hornet in the win over UC Davis, ending a streak of 114 at-bats without a long ball
• Sewell is batting .318 (7-for-22) during his six-game streak, scoring four runs and driving in three
• Freshman outfielder Sam Harry has reached base safely in each of his last seven games, hitting safely in six of those and hit by a pitch in the other to keep the streak alive
• In that stretch, Harry is batting .345 (10-for-29) with nine runs scored and five driven in
• He led-off Wednesday's win at UC Davis with his third home run of the season -- the first Hornet to lead off a game with a homer since Josh Rolling did so at Nevada on April 5, 2022
• Harry added a triple in the fifth and a single in the ninth to fall a double short of hitting for the cycle, 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
• Sitting atop the Hornet lineup, Harry has scored at least one run in each of his last six games and leads the team with 38 runs scored this year
• Harry is batting .333 (28-for-84) in 20 games in the lead-off spot this year, adding five doubles, two triples, and three home runs, while driving in 16
• He has also slugged .548 and posted a .412 on-base percentage in that spot in the lineup
• Earlier this year, Harry's 13-game hitting streak is the longest by a Hornet this season and the longest since Jakob Poturnak hit in 14 consecutive games and Cameron Sewell did so in 13 straight last season
• Senior Ryan Ellis has been a little bit of a table-setter, a little bit of a run-producer, and has experiences a whole lot of success as of late, collecting hits in nine of his last 11 games and batting .424 (14-for-33) over that stretch, scoring 13 runs and driving in seven while collecting five doubles
• That performance has raised his average 82 points to .320 on the year, adding multiple hits in four of his last six contests
• In total, he has multiple walks in eight games and stands second on the team in the category while pacing the squad with a .500 on-base percentage
• Seven different Hornets have accounted for game-winning RBI this season led by four from Dessens, and three each from both Harry and Michael Perazzo
• Jakob Poturnak -- who leads the way among active Hornets with seven career game-winning RBI -- and Sewell have two apiece, while Luis Pimentel-Guerrero and Nikhil Beasley have one each

HORNETS ON THE MOUND
• Senior RHP Ethan Lay posted his seventh "quality start" of the year in the win over UT Arlington last week and the 14th of his career
• Lay scattered five hits over seven shutout innings, walking one and striking out two en route to WAC Pitcher of the Week honors
• Over his last six starts, Lay is 4-0 with a pair of no decisions and a 0.90 ERA, having allowed just four earned runs over 40 innings of work, walking just five and striking out 41
• The Hornets are a combined 5-1 in those starts against Pacific (3/11), Winthrop (3/19), Kansas (3/25), Utah Tech (4/2), Utah Valley (4/10), and UT Arlington (4/17)
• Opponents are hitting just .205 (30-for-146) in those starts while Sacramento State has outscored the opposition, 44-15
• Of Lay's seven walks this season, five have come on full counts and two have been four-pitch walks
• Lay has not walked more than one batter in 10 starts this year
• His 10 strikeouts against Utah Valley marked his third double-digit strikeout total this season and the fourth of his Sacramento State career
• He threw 123 pitches over his eight innings in the win over the Wolverines -- the most pitches by a Hornet starter since Austin Roberts threw 124 in a seven-inning no-decision against Grand Canyon on May 16, 2019
• After beginning his collegiate career as a starter with the Hornets as a true freshman -- including a no-hitter against Northern Illinois in his first collegiate start -- senior RHP Colin Hunter has been stingy as a reliever this season, allowing two earned runs (1.10 ERA) in 11 games, striking out 18 and walking only six
• He has not allowed an earned run over his last six games (12.0 IP), scattering seven hits and striking out 11 -- including a season-high four against Utah Valley (4/10) while holding opponents to a .167 average (7-for-42)
• Hunter also entered as a pinch runner late in the win over San Francisco (4/14)
• Senior RHP Andrew Monson has "come in like a lion" in March and has yet to "go out like a lamb"
• In his last 10 appearances (12.2 innings), the senior has gone 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA, allowing just two earned on 10 hits while striking out 15 and walking two
• Opponents are hitting just .217 (10-for-46) against him in that stretch
• He has allowed one or fewer runs in 14 of his 15 appearances this season -- including nine shutout appearances -- and boasts a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5.5-to-1, having issued only four free passes on the year against 22 strikeouts
• Both Elijah Rogalski and Hunter picked up their first career saves in a Hornet uniform last week as the former did so in the series opener against UT Arlington and the latter in Wednesday's win over UC Davis on the road
• Although it's not really a pitching stat, the defense has done it's job behind the hurlers as of late, having not committed an error over its last six-plus games (52.1 innings) dating back to the second game of the series against Utah Valley

HORNETS IN THE WAC (AS OF 4/22)
TEAM HITTING
• Sacramento State ranks second in sacrifices (23), tied for third in triples (7), fourth in hits (377)

TEAM PITCHING
• Sacramento State ranks second in the league in ERA (4.58), innings (355.2), fewest hits allowed (341), fewest runs allowed (219), walks allowed (142), strikeouts (338), and batting average against (.248)

INDIVIDUAL
• Dessens leads the WAC in hits (66), is second in RBI (49), tied for third in triples (2), seventh in slugging (.602), tied for seventh in home runs (9), eighth in average (.365), ninth in OPS (1.009), tied for ninth in doubles (12)
• Ellis ranks third in on-base percentage (.500)
• Harry is tied for third in triples (2), is sixth in runs (38) and hits (54), tied for seventh in sacrifice flies (3). tied for eighth in hit by pitches (9), and tied for ninth in doubles (12)
• Ott is tied for third in triples (2), tied for seventh in stolen bases (10)
• Luis Pimentel-Guerrero is tied for sixth in walks (27) and tied for seventh in sacrifice flies (3)
• Cameron Sewell is tied for eighth in hit by pitches (9)
• Michael Perazzo is tied for fifth in sacrifices (5)
• Lay leads the league in innings (60.2) and fewest walks allowed (7), is second in ERA (1.93), average against (.220), and strikeouts (66), third in fewest earned runs allowed (13), fifth in fewest runs allowed (22), 10th in fewest hits allowed (51)
• Trevor Wilson is tied for fifth in saves (3)

HORNETS IN THE NCAA (AS OF 4/22... TOP 100 ONLY)
TEAM
• Ranks 32nd in fewest walks per nine (3.59), 35th in WHIP (1.36), 49th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.38), 50th in ERA (4.58), 57th in sacrifices (23), 67th in fewest hits per nine (8.63), 88th in doubles (77), 92nd in fielding percentage (.973)

INDIVIDUAL
• Lay ranks 5th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.43) and fewest walks per nine (1.04), 20th in ERA (1.93), 21st in WHIP (0.96), 59th in strikeouts (66)
• Dessens is 5th in hits (66), 21st in hits per game (1.57), 33rd in total bases (109), 37th in RBI (49), 62nd in RBI per game (1.17)