Carlos Morales led the Hornets to a 7-3 victory over UOP on Sunday, asthey took two out of three from their conference foe at Hornet Field infront of 306 people.

Although the Tigers (15-11) are in the Big West with the Hornets(15-10), because of a scheduling change this year, this series did notcount in league standings. Sac State head coach John Smith was happywith his team?s performance versus the Tigers over the weekend.

“Today (Sunday) we pushed all the right buttons. These two wins are bigfor us right now,” Smith said. “We got confidence that we can win aseries from a Big West team.”Morales, a senior who has already missed seven games due to a hamstringinjury, led the charge on Sunday, getting four hits in five at bats,with three RBI. He went seven for 13 for the series, with six RBI, andraised his team leading batting average to .354.

But his heroics wouldn?t come until after the Hornets had fallen behindthe Tigers. Senior Rick Morton, one of three Tigers’ to play atSacramento Community College, took a Mike Miranda pitch out of the yardto centerfield in the top of the second to give the Tigers a 1-0advantage.

Sac State would answer one inning later as senior Aurelio Jackson put onhis best Jackie Robinson impersonation, stealing home after he slammed adeep triple to centerfield. He raced the last 90 feet when he and thirdbase coach Brian Hewitt decided to take advantage of UOP?s ToddBergthold?s slow delivery to the plate. The crowd erupted in jubilationand stunned amazement when the Tigers’ catcher Travis Anderson droppedthe ball, as Jackson slid home.

“We’ve been struggling to score runs. He (Bergthold) wasn’t looking atme and Hewitt said let’s go,?” Jackson said of his swipe. “So I ran andyelled kill, kill, kill!”

After some scoreless innings, UOP scored twice in the top of the sixthinning to take a 3-1 lead. But the game turned in the bottom of theseventh inning.

With two outs and nobody on base, Tim Maghan doubled down theright-field line, Jackson walked, and Seth Atchue reached on an error toload the bases for Morales. He tied the game at three, with a two-rundouble down the left-field line.

“I kind of relaxed there,” said Morales of the double. “After I didn?tcome through yesterday.”

Smith was very impressed with his senior’s performance.

“Morales was big. That is the kind of dirt-bag player he is,” Smithsaid. “Carlos is the spark plug on this team. He goes hard every day andevery inning of every game.”

After Morales’s double, Dave Lusk got an RBI single to get the lead andcatcher Joe Evans followed with an RBI hit of his own. Freshman ChrisKinsey kept the rally going with a run-scoring hit to the right side,and the Hornets led 6-3.

“Hitting is contagious,” said Morales, who also drove in a run in thenext inning, of the seventh inning rally. “This series counts in a waybecause they’re in our conference. It prepares us for league.”

Miranda pitched eight innings for his fourth victory of the season,allowing eight runners and one earned run.

On Saturday afternoon at Hornet Field, the Hornets were defeated 4-2,despite another good pitching outing out of junior Benny Gonzalez, whohas an ERA of 1.97, lowest among the Hornets’ starters.

He pitched seven innings, giving up seven hits, two walks and two runs.

“Benny did not deserve to lose,” Smith said. “I hated to take him out ofthe game.”But Smith was less happy with his hitter’s performance.

“We couldn’t drive a guy in from third base with less than two outs,”Smith said. “We?ve got to take care of business early and get someruns.”

The devastating blow for the Hornets came when they brought in AdamRakela and Morton crushed his first pitch for a two-run home run tocenterfield. This gave UOP a 4-1 lead.

The Hornets fought back and scored in the eighth inning, and had thetying run on base with nobody out in the ninth inning, but they couldn’tproduce the clutch hit and took the loss.

On Friday, the Hornets bats were out, and they defeated the Tigers, 8-6.Evans was the story, slamming his seventh home run, getting three basehits in four chances and driving in four runs.

” He has his days,” said Smith of the Hornets’ home run leader. “And hetends to be pretty good all day long.”

The Hornets used a four-run fourth inning to build a 6-4 lead and scoredtwice in the sixth inning en route to the win.

Smith described the weird feeling of playing a conference team, in agame that doesn’t count in league standings.

“It’s a little different. Both teams are trying to flex their muscles,”he said. “We win two of three here, but later on, they are fired up(when the series does count in league).”

The Hornets host UC Riverside on Saturday at 2 p.m., and on Sunday andMonday at 1 p.m.