As the dust was clearing from its five-game winning streak, Sac State baseball returned to Hornet Field over the weekend and dropped two of three games to Utah.

Sac State (10-8) got blown out by Utah (10-9) on Friday before splitting a doubleheader on Saturday. Head coach John Smith was very pleased that his team managed to pull out the last game of the series.

“It was big…huge,” Smith said. “If we would have been swept, we would have gone from 9-6 to 9-9, instead of being 10-8.”

In the series opener, Utah touched up Sac State senior Mike Miranda for two runs in the top of the first inning. Sac State closed the margin to 2-1 in the last of the fourth inning, but this is as close as the Hornets would get. Utah went on to score five runs in the sixth and seventh innings and cruised to a 17-10 victory; the score being that close because the Hornets scored eight runs in the last three innings.

Leading the way for Utah was designated hitter Chris Shelton, center fielder Sam Swenson and second baseman Adam Castleton. Combined, they went 12 for 12 with three walks, 10 runs scored and six runs batted in.

Junior Joe Evans and freshman Chris Kinsey homered in the loss for Sac State.

Saturday morning Utah won again, but did it in a completely different way. Utah showed off its pitching in the game, which lasted only seven innings in order to get both games played. Utah?s Travis Palmer and Mitch Maio pitched seven innings, allowing seven Sac State runners and two runs.

Sac State?s Jeff Groeger threw 5 2/3 innings, giving up 10 hits and four runs. This put his earned run average at 2.33 for the season, the best among Sac State starters, and dropped his record to 2-2.

Utah scored, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and Shelton gave his team a 3-0 advantage with a fourth-inning two-run shot onto the roof of the parking garage in left-center. The 138 in attendance were witness to a treat in the same inning, as Sac State?s senior center fielder, Aurelio Jackson, made a running catch on the warning track, with his back to the plate, before spinning and doubling off a Utah base-runner at first base.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Sac State?s Dave Lusk drove in Kinsey with a single and closed the Utah lead to 3-1. Both teams added a run in the sixth inning and the Utes held on for the win.

In the series finale, Hornet junior Benny Gonzalez threw seven strong innings, giving up six hits, one walk and one run in the win. His performance came on only two day?s rest and impressed Smith.

“He did a great job. He?s a very effortless pitcher, there is not a lot of motion,” said Smith on why Gonzalez is able to pitch on short rest. “So if anybody can do it, he can.”Gonzalez knew that his team needed the win badly.

“Down two games already, I just wanted to keep the team in the game and hopefully we?d score some runs,” he said. “They (Utah) are a really good hitting team, but the (Sac State) infield did all the work.”

Third baseman Carlos Morales roped a double for the Hornets in the last of the fourth inning, and later scored on an infield single by Kinsey. Sac State added another run in the seventh inning, and Utah scored in the top of the eighth inning.

To stamp the win, Sac State called on closer Michael Penbera. Utah had runners on second and third with one out before Penbera got Brit Pannier to pop up and Tommy Maestas to strike out to end the game.

“I had him (Pannier) 1-2 and he was looking for a slider,” said Penbera of the crucial at bat. “Coach Rusty McLain called an up-and-in fastball to get him to pop it up and he did.”The Hornets return to action on March 9, as they will host Chicago State at Hornet Field at 2 p.m.