Sweep of Tigers moves baseball over .500 mark

Greg Hyatt

It’s hard to get a read on these Hornets just 34 games into theseason.

The best word to describe the 2004 campaign is resiliency. Afterdropping three out of four home games the week prior, the Hornetsbounced back to sweep a four game series against the University ofPacific Tigers this past weekend to push their overall record to19-15.

The perfect weekend was capped off with a 6-1 win at HornetField, behind a complete game pitching performance from WarrenRosebrock. It was the second consecutive complete game forRosebrock, who gave up just one run on six hits and is now 4-3overall.

Billy Sinacori led the Hornet offense with a three-run homer inthe fourth that put the Hornets ahead for good at 4-1.

On Saturday, the Hornets put together an eighth inning rally fora 5-4 come-from-behind win over the Tigers.

Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Buddy Morales led offwith a single. Jack Arroyo followed with a looping double down theright field line.

After an intentional walk to Craig Johnson to load the bases,Brett Flowers floated a single to shallow center field, tying it at4-4.

Then with the bases still loaded, John Acha’s ground ball scoredArroyo from third, putting the Hornets ahead 5-4.

“We finally got some bloop hits for runs today and it hasn’tbeen like that for a while,” Hornet manager John Smith said of thetimely hitting.

Ethan Katz picked up his third straight win for the Hornets,after giving up three runs in eight innings. His team-leadingrecord improved to 6-1.

“Ethan didn’t have his best stuff today, but he wanted to stayin,” Smith said of his ace pitcher. “He won it on desire.”

The Hornets traveled to Stockton’s UOP campus to start theseries with a double header on Friday. They brought some hot batswith them, scoring a total of 31 runs in the two games.

In the first game, the Hornets actually trailed 9-2, but cameback for a 16-9 win. Craig Johnson led the attack, going 5-for-6with three RBIs. Pedro Santiago was 2-for-2 with four RBIs.

The Hornets won the second game 15-5.

The Hornets will host UC Santa Barbara for a three-game seriesstarting Friday at 2 p.m.