SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For the second time in two weeks Causeway rivals Sacramento State and UC Davis will meet on the diamond as the Hornets make a return trip to the Aggies' home field for their final midweek and their final non-conference contest of the year. First pitch from Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be shown on the ESPN+ platform.
PLAY BALL!
WHAT: Sacramento State (22-27, 6-6 WAC) at UC Davis (23-24, 12-15 Big West)
WHEN: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
TIME: 6 PM PT
WHERE: Davis, Calif.
STADIUM: Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium
WATCH: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: UCDavisAggies.com
GAME NOTES: UC Davis | Western Athletic Conference
ABOUT THE AGGIES
• UC Davis enters the week with a 23-24 overall record and a 12-15 mark in Big West Conference play
• The Aggies are streaking, tying their season-best winning streak by coming out on top in each of their last four games thanks to a midweek win at California (6-1) and a three-game sweep on the road at Cal State Fullerton (7-6, 11-5, 6-2)
• Thanks to those four wins, the Aggies improved to 14-14 on the road this year as only nine of the team's 23 wins have come at home
• As a team, the UC Davis offense is batting .248 and averaging 4.96 runs per game
• Junior outfielder Tyler Howard leads the regulars with a .286 batting average to go with 39 runs scored, nine doubles, six triples, four home runs, and 23 RBI
• The Aggies' pitching staff sports a 4.64 ERA and a 1.59 WHIP, striking out 358 over 413.1 innings and a .286 average against
SERIES NOTES
• Sacramento State holds a 150-94-1 lead in the series with UC Davis, including a 48-40 lead as Division I rivals
• Aside from being the program's 150th win in the history of the series, the Hornets' 7-1 win in Davis back on April 21 was only the team's third in the last eight meetings between the two programs
• Sacramento State is 62-53 on the road against UC Davis, winning the last two after losing three straight
• Four of the last eight meetings have been decided by two runs or fewer, including three one-run decisions
• Tuesday marks the 246th all-time meeting between Sacramento State and UC Davis according to available records that date back to 1949 — by far the longest running series (in terms of games played) in the program's history ahead of Pacific (191), Nevada (188), and Fresno State (182)
• The 150 wins against the Aggies are the most for the Hornets against any one opponent, ahead of the 116 wins against Chico State and the 107 against Pacific
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is a combined 304-382-3 (.443) against the current Big West Conference lineup
• UC Davis is the second Big West opponent for the Hornets this year after they hosted UC Irvine in a three-game series to open the 2026 campaign
• Sacramento State's win over the Aggies two weeks ago, snapped a four-game skid against Big West opponents dating back to a three-game sweep of UC Riverside on April 25-27 at home
• Although the Hornets will be moving to the Big West beginning next season, Sacramento State and UC Davis will not be conference rivals as the Aggies are moving on to the Mountain West Conference
MIDWEEK MADNESS
• Tuesday's contest marks the 13th midweek game of the year for the Hornets, who are 7-5 in their previous 12 this season
• Sacramento State has won seven of its previous nine midweek games, posting wins over Pacific (10-0 in seven innings on March 11), San Francisco (8-3 on March 17 and 12-2 in seven innings on April 14), splitting a pair at Kansas with an 11-1 loss on March 24 and a 7-4 win on March 25, Nevada (11-2 on April 6 and 13-7 on April 28), and UC Davis (7-1 on April 22)
• Tuesday marks the eighth midweek road game this season where the Hornets are 4-3
• This season's seven midweek victories are the most since the 2023 squad finished 10-3 in midweek contests
LOOKING AHEAD
• Following their non-conference finale on Tuesday at UC Davis, Sacramento State has only two Western Athletic Conference series left as the remaining five schools which have not yet clinched a berth in the league tournament continue to jockey for position
• The Hornets hit the road for the final time in the regular season this coming weekend, traveling to Southern California to take on California Baptist in a three-game set on May 8-10 in Riverside
• Current rivals in the WAC, Sacramento State and the Lancers will continue to be rivals in the Big West next season when both make the move to the league
• Following that series, the Hornets close the regular season at home with three against Tarleton State on May 14-16
HORNET SHORT HOPS
• Sacramento State's offense has been scintillating in midweek contests this year, batting a combined .281 as a team and averaging 9.17 runs per game
• As a staff, Hornet pitching has posted a 3.77 ERA and a .229 average against
• Junior outfielder Erick Dessens leads the team with a .442 average in midweek contests, scoring 13 runs, slugging four home runs, and driving in 19 to go with a 1.213 OPS
• Five Sacramento State hitters have on OPS above .900 in midweek contests: Ryan Ellis (1.248), Dessens, Sam Harry (1.001), Jakob Poturnak (.981), and Jace Jeremiah (.939)
• Sacramento State opened the series finale against Abilene Christian on Sunday with a six-run first inning — tied for the second-highest scoring inning and the team's highest scoring first inning of the season
• When Sam Harry and Ryan Ellis went deep in the opener against the Wildcats, it marked the first time that a Hornet duo had gone back-to-back since Poturnak and JP Smith did the trick against ACU back on April 5 of last season in Texas
• Senior Ethan Lay struck out eight hitters in the opener against Abilene Christian — the fifth time that the right-hander has struck out at least eight in a game this season and the eighth time in his Hornet career
• Dessens enters Tuesday's game at UC Davis having reached base safely in each of his last 13 games — tied for the second-longest streak by a Hornet this season and standing behind only Jeremiah's 19-game run earlier this year
• He also stands 11 hits shy of breaking into the school's single-season top 10, while his 56 RBI are four shot of that top-10 list in school history
• With a team-high 34 walks, Luis Pimentel-Guerrero is six free passes shy of the school's single-season top 10 list
• Sacramento State has slugged a home run in seven of its last eight games, including four multi-home run contests
• Nearly a third (11) of the team's 36 home runs this season have come during that stretch
• The 11 runs in the finale against Abilene Christian marked the 11th time this season that the Hornets have scored double-digit runs, while the 12 hits marked the 21st time that they have collected 10-or-more hits
• Sacramento State's 4-3 win in game two of the series against Abilene Christian marked its first true "walk-off" win of the year and the first since Matt Masciangelo walked the Hornets off against Seattle U back on April 12 of last season
• Two of the three games of the series against Abilene Christian were decided by two runs or fewer, marking the 20th and 21st such contests for Sacramento State this season
• With 403 strikeouts as a staff, the Hornets have now struck out 400-or-more batters in each of the last six seasons while this year's total ranks 10th on the school's single-season list
• In his last three starts, junior RHP Kurt Marton has allowed just two earned on seven hits over 12.2 innings (1.42 ERA), striking out 15 against eight walks
• His seven strikeouts Abilene Christian in game two of the series marked his second-highest total of the year, trailing only the nine strikeouts he had against Saint Joseph's on Feb. 21 in his second start of the season
• Junior LHP Sean Carey had quite a weekend against the Wildcats, throwing three shutout innings in games one and three, allowing just two hits and striking out eight against two walks
• His six strikeouts in the series finale marked a new career high, surpassing the five strikeouts at Creighton on March 29
• Freshman RHP Trevor Wilson picked up his third win of the season in the second game of the series with ACU and is 1-0 with a save in his last three appearances, allowing just one earned on eight hits over 6.2 innings (1.35 ERA) while striking out five without a walk• The three innings against the Wildcats marked his fourth appearance of three-or-more innings and his 12th multi-inning appearance of the year in a team-high 20 appearances
• Defensively, the Hornets have committed only three errors in its last 13 games (454 chances) for a .993 fielding percentage
