For the first time in more than a year the Sacramento State baseball team swept a four-game series with its performance this past weekend against Utah Valley State.

Sacramento State won the series by a combined score of 33-14, holding the lead for the entire game in three of the four contests.

The four wins extended the team’s winning streak to six in a row heading into yesterday’s game with San Francisco (results from which were not available by press time). It is the first six-game winning streak for coach John Smith and company since the 1998 season. The Hornets are now 9-1 in their last 10 games.

“These guys are really starting to believe in themselves right now,” Smith said. “They’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel right now, and they have much more confidence as a team because of that.

“We have a lot of season left, but now we’re in the right frame of mind, feeling that going into any weekend series that we have a chance to win. Before I didn’t see that in our team, but now we believe we are going to get it done each time out.”

Against the visiting Wolverines, the Hornets got solid production from both their bats and their arms. The 33 runs scored in the four games were the most they’ve scored over a four-game span all year.

On Saturday, in the opener of a doubleheader, the Hornets scored 11 runs in the first two innings, leading to a 14-5 win with the most runs scored in a game this season.

In that game and in the four against Utah Valley, the Hornets’ first two batters in the lineup did the majority of the damage. Leadoff man Jim Strombach and second-place hitter Taylor Watanabe. The two each had three games with at least two hits, and they combined for 11 of the team’s 33 runs scored in the four games.

“We’ve had a lot more patience at the plate as of late,” Watanabe said. “The coaches say we need to stay back on the ball and I could see we have been doing this much more than before.

“All of the guys, including myself, have much more confidence up there right now, and it’s really been showing in the last few games.”

The Hornets’ pitchers also were very impressive in the weekend series. Senior Ethan Katz had a complete game victory in the first game of the series.

On Sunday, the Hornets got their third strong starting performance of the series after Travis Kane went 7 1?3 innings pitched, only allowing two runs in the 8-2 win. It was Kane’s second win of the week after beating California on Tuesday.

“My control has been 10-times better than it was earlier in the season,” Kane said.”A big difference in us has been solid and consistent pitching,” Smith added. “The starters have been going much longer and it’s allowed us to not have to wear out the bullpen, and now we are able to use certain pitchers in the right situations.”

After Sunday’s four-game sweep, the Hornets are 17-20-1 going into their game Tuesday at San Francisco.

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Mitch McLaughlin can be reached at [email protected]