The Sacramento State baseball team (11-11) took two out of four games from the Dartmouth Big Green (3-3) in a wild series at Hornet Field last weekend.

“We didn’t play with the kind of intensity we needed to over the weekend,” Hornet head coach John Smith said. “Until the last game, we just didn’t have the right mental make-up.”

Despite forecasts of rain, the sun shined brightly as the teams split Saturday’s doubleheader, with the Hornets winning a wild matinee contest 18-12 and dropping the second game 9-6.

The first game was delayed for nearly 20 minutes after Hornet catcher Corey Watts dislocated his ankle and fractured his fibula sliding into second base.

Watts will remain immobilized for six to eight weeks. Freshman Brian Blauser will receive the bulk of Watts’ playing time.”I didn’t think I’d be in this situation, so I’m not trying to do too much,” Blauser said. “Our pitchers give me a lot of confidence back there.”

When the game resumed, Sac State’s offense came to life — Mikela Olsen’s two-run homer capped the rally, giving Sac State a 6-0 lead. Olsen also homered in the fourth inning.

Aided by five Hornet errors, Dartmouth battled back to get within one run in the top of the sixth. However, Jesse Schmidt’s two-run blast in the bottom half of the inning sealed Sac State’s victory. Tim Grant (1-0) pitched a much-needed complete game for Dartmouth in game No. 2 of the doubleheader, despite getting roughed up early.

Sac State sophomore Bret LeVier’s three-run blast in the third highlighted another wild start, as Dartmouth and Sac State exchanged the lead three times in the first three innings. Dartmouth outlasted the Hornets though, with Scott Shirrell’s two-run triple in the fourth inning off of Andy Mohr (0-2), giving the Big Green the lead for good.

On Sunday, Dartmouth scored four runs in the first inning and led 8-1 before the Hornets rallied for eight runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead.

Blauser ignited the rally by hitting a bases-clearing double and then scoring on third baseman Brian Gattis’ throwing error. Chris Kinsey’s sacrifice fly put Sac State up 9-8, but the Big Green tagged the Hornets bullpen for five runs in the top of the ninth to earn the 13-9 victory. Freshman James Wheeler (0-1) took the loss for the Hornets.

Sac State defeated Dartmouth easily in Monday’s series finale, putting runners on base in each of the first seven innings en route to a 10-5 victory.

Kinsey overcame his recent slump to club eleven RBI in the Dartmouth series. “I’ve been trying to see the ball better and working hard on staying back,” Kinsey said.

Olsen homered twice, one from each side of the plate, to lead last Tuesday’s 9-3 victory over UC Davis.

After his two homers Saturday, Olsen became the first Hornet since 1998 to record back-to-back multi-home run games.

Sac State hosted the Minnesota Gophers yesterday as part of a two-game series, but results were not in by press-time. The series continues today at 2 p.m.

The team will then travel to UC Riverside for a weekend set this Saturday and Sunday before returning to Hornet Field to host California on Tuesday at 2 p.m.

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