For the first time in the season Sac State baseball has fallen below .500 after losing its second straight Big West series and three of its last four.

In their last meeting of the season the Hornets took two of three from Santa Barbara, but last week Sac State fell short to the Gauchos after losing two of three and falling to an overall record of 21-32 and 13-14 in conference play.

“It’s very disappointing,” assistant coach Brian Hewitt said. “It’s disappointing for the kids because they played real well, and our hopes were to make the playoffs, but things don’t go your way everytime.”

The Hornets came out on top Friday 8-6, but lost a close one 10-9 on Saturday and dropped a high scoring match 17-12 on Sunday.

In game one, Sac State had an early 2-1 lead when the Gauchos put up four runs in the fourth to give them a 5-2 lead that would perish in the next inning. The Hornets tied the game with a three-run, five-hit fifth inning after junior Ryan Brown’s single to left drove home two runners. The game was tied at six after eight innings when junior Dave Lusk homered to left giving the Hornets a 7-6 lead and sealed the victory.

Freshman pitcher Steve Cuckovich came in as relief in the eighth and held a shutout allowing no hits in two innings of play and picking up the victory. Cuckovich holds a 5-2 overall record with a 3-1 record in conference play and 3.33 ERA.

“Steve made some good pitches,” Hewitt said. “He got us out of a jam and he’s continuing to get better and better.”

Game two had Sac State in command for most of the contest until Santa Barbara rolled in five runs in the ninth to give them the close victory.

The game was tied at two after the Hornets put up five runs in the fourth. With senior Jesse Krebs on second, junior Tim Meghan homered to left field giving them a 7-2 lead. Sac State was leading 9-5 after eight innings when the Gauchos went on a rampage, scoring five in the ninth for the come from behind victory.

“It’s extremely difficult,” Hewitt said. “It’s difficult because everybody in conference play can beat each other.”

The Gauchos are tied for fourth place with Long Beach State with an overall record of 26-24 and 16-11 in Big West play.

Game three was more of a football score with Santa Barbara putting up 17 runs, tying Chico State with most runs against the Hornets this season.

Sac State had a 3-0 lead after three innings of play when the Gauchos had a scorching fourth inning scoring ten runs. The Hornets allowed two home runs in the inning, when Santa Barbara’s Tyler Von Schell homered to right field and Jeff Bannon homered to center field.

“We didn’t get guys out and we couldn’t deliver,” Hewitt said. “They had back-to-back homeruns and we couldn’t stop the bleeding. It was just a nightmare inning.”

The Gauchos had a 13-10 lead after eight innings when Hornets junior Cory Williams homered to left field that brought the game to 13-12. A strong comeback was wiped away when Santa Barbara put up four runs in the tenth to give them the victory.

“We need to improve our pitching depth,” Hewitt said. “We have good starting pitching, but we need to get a deeper pitching staff to hold the course of a 60-game season.”

Sac State will be playing at New Mexico State next weekend for the last conference series of the season. Earlier in the season the Hornets took two of three from New Mexico.