Sacramento State’s baseball team dropped the rubber match of its opening series with CSU Northridge today, falling to the Matadors 5-3.

In the second inning, Sac State pitcher Zach Morgan saw his two-seam fastball fly over his head off the bat of Northridge’s Kyle Williams and hit the parking structure over the left field wall.

Even though the home run was the first Sac State has given up all season, it would cost the Hornets the lead as they never recovered.

“I was trying to pitch outside and the ball two-seamed too much back over the plate,” Morgan said. “It was a bad pitch and a good hitter made a good swing.”

Sac State got out to an early one-run lead when freshman outfielder Kyle Moses tripled down the right field line and was driven in by Andrew Ayers one batter later.

Moses played at Tracy High School just one year ago and in his first two games of collegiate baseball he already has five hits.

“He is going to be a great player for us,” said Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen. “He is a special player.”

With the Hornets down by three after Northridge was able to score another run, designated hitter Trevor Paine singled to drive home Moses in the sixth inning to cut the deficit down to two.

After Morgan was taken out following the fourth inning, Sac State looked to its bullpen and brought out freshman pitcher Brennan Leitao.

Leitao pitched four innings of relief and gave up one earned run but walked two and hit a pair of batters, including one with the bases loaded.

Of the five runs Sac State gave up, four came off of walks or hit batters.

“It’s one of those things where you just need to work on it,” Christiansen said. “We only gave up 11 runs in the three games. I’ll take that any day.”

Opportunities were not at a minimum for the Hornets, as they had runners in scoring position in both the seventh and eighth innings but could not produce any runs.

Senior catcher Brent Hottman said this year’s team is already improved from last year.

“I think we are on the right track,” Hottman said. “The record might not show how we played but we out-hit them every game. I don’t think it is anything to worry about.”

The Hornets’ next game will be at home against Saint Mary’s College Monday. First pitch is at 2 p.m.

Ryan Kuhn can be reached at @rskuhn