UC Riverside?s relief pitchers got to take a weekend vacation at the expense of Sacramento State?s offense, as the Highlanders swept the Hornets in a three-game sreies.

Strong pitching and offense propelled the Highlanders to three victories, 10-0 Friday, 7-3 Saturday, and 17-5 Sunday. The Highlanders strong starting pitchers threw two complete games while the third starter of the series pitched eight innings.

The Hornets started the week off on a good note, as the team slapped the University of California , Davis around Raley Field, coming away with a 7-0 win. Chris Kinsey led the Hornets on the mound, pitching a complete game, three-hit shutout with nine strikeouts.The Hornets (14-19, 0-9 in Big Sky Conference) are still looking for their first BSC victory and have lost 11 of the teams past 12 games.

In the final game of the series, the Hornets jumped out to an early lead in the third inning when Tito Barba singled to open the inning and scored on Brett Leviers two-run home run over the left field wall.

Kris Kinsey made it back-to-back home runs as he hit one of his own giving the Hornets a 3-0 lead.

Kinsey, who was the starting pitcher, shut the Highlanders out for the first six innings, striking out five.

Kinsey suffered food poisoning after Tuesday?s game, forcing him to miss Friday?s game.

In the seventh inning the Highlanders offense would be able to get to Kinsey and the Hornets relief pitching. The Highlanders first three batters would get on with a leadoff double followed by two singles. After a bunt attempt which lead to a force out, the Highlanders would break the game open.

“Riverside swung the bat well all series,” Hornet coach John Smith said. “The last three teams we have faced are excellent hitting teams.”

The next nine Highlanders would be able to get on base and Tim Faulkner capped off the inning with a grand slam. The scoreboard was only able to show 9 runs in the inning when the Highlanders actually scored 13.

“When you have a run away train that you can?t stop it turns into a 13-run inning,” Smith said. “They just kept finding the holes and those hits got more magnified as the inning went on.”

The only bright spot for the Hornets came from Levier who hit his second home run of the game in the ninth inning.

The second game was one were the lead went back and forth. The Highlanders jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a sacrifice fly in the first inning. The Hornets would come back to take the lead on an RBI single by Levier and a run scoring groundout by Mario Celillo.

UCR would take back the lead on a run scoring triple in the third by Tony Festa who would later score, giving his team a 3-2 lead. The Highlanders would add to its lead in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the sixth the Hornets would have an opportunity for a big inning when it got the bases loaded with no outs, but was only able to score one of the runners, tying the game at four.

The Highlanders would take the lead for good in the seventh when they scored three runs capped off by a two-run single by Randy Blood.

On Friday, the Hornets were unable to hit UCRs A.J. Shappi, who struck out 14 batters on his way to a shutout.

Levier was the only Hornet who had any success as he connected on two of the teams four hits.

Next on the schedule for the Hornets is a trip to Cal State University, Northridge over the weekend. Northridge is currently second in the BSC and has an overall record of 25-12.

“We have some young players and our whole team is built around the future,” Smith said. “It?s a learning curve and we are suffering right now.”

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