MESA, Ariz. — Senior Ryan Ellis capped off an unbelievable week at the plate by finishing 4-for-4 with two more extra-base hits while Luis Pimentel-Guerrero added a home run and three RBI as part of his three-hit day, but Sacramento State's offense could not keep up with top-seeded Tarleton State, falling 21-11 in the highest scoring Western Athletic Conference Tournament game in league history on Saturday afternoon at Hohokam Stadium.
The Hornets, who were making their first WAC Tournament championship game appearance since winning the crown in 2019, finished their season at 29-32 overall, finishing 3-2 in tournament play.
With the win, the Texans improved to 37-19 overall and clinched the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament berth, winning both the league's regular season and postseason trophies.
Ellis and Pimentel-Guerrero were two of Sacramento State's all-tournament team honorees, joined on the list by reliever Sean Cary and infielder Jace Jeremiah. The quartet were the first Hornets named to the league's all-tournament team since Jack Bollengier earned a spot in 2021, while the four honorees were the most since 2019 when Dawsen Bacho was named MVP along with all-tournament picks Travis Martizia, Matt Smith, and Ryan Walstad.
Ellis finished a home run short of the cycle on Saturday, ending the day 4-for-4 at the plate with a pair of singles, a double, and a triple while also drawing a walk and scoring three times. The senior capped off one of the most explosive tournament performances in school history, tying the school WAC Tournament record with 12 hits — 10 of those going for extra bases — set by Ian Dawkins in 2018.
For the week, Ellis hit .632 (12-for-19) with nine runs scored, eight doubles, a triple, and a home run, driving in eight runs and slugging 1.316 for the weekend. The nine runs scored also set a school tournament record, surpassing both Dawkins and Keith Torres, who had eight in 2018 and 2019, respectively, while his .632 average topped Buddy Morales' mark of .600 (6-for-10) in 2006.
His eight doubles broke James Outman's mark of five in 2018, his four hits on Saturday are tied for the most in a single WAC Tournament game in school history, while his eight RBI are tied for the second-most in a tournament.
Jakob Poturnak, who finished with two hits and a pair of RBI, and Pimentel-Guerrero, who added three hits and three RBI, also slugged home runs in the game, while Jeremiah drove in four thanks to an RBI single in the third and three sacrifice flies. Jeremiah's four RBI matched the school single-game WAC Tournament record, becoming the ninth Hornet to do so.
After spotting Tarleton State a run in the first, the Hornets answered with three in the home half on Ellis' RBI triple, Jeremiah's first sac fly of the day, and Pimentel-Guerrero's blast over the right-field wall for a 3-1 lead.
The Texans punched right back with four in the second and a single run in the third, but Sacramento State responded with three in the home half to tie the game. Jeremiah's RBI single got the scoring started as Poturnak followed with another run-scoring hit and the Hornets evened things up on a bases-loaded wild pitch to make it 6-6.
That lit the powder keg for the rest of the day. Tarleton State took the lead for good with a five run fourth, added three in the sixth and scored seven times in the final two innings. Meanwhile, Sacramento State kept clawing, scoring twice in the fourth on a Jeremiah sac fly and a Pimentel-Guerrero single, and another run-scoring hit by Pimentel-Guerrero in the sixth.
Jeremiah added a sac fly in the eighth and Poturnak led-off the ninth with his 11th home run of the year, but the game was too far out of reach.
