As the summer heat has begun to turn up, the baseball season is starting to wind down, and Sacramento State is gearing up for a stretch drive that should take them right into the Western Athletic Conference Tournament that begins on May 25.

Despite being swept in a three-game series in Hawaii during the weekend, the Hornets remain in fifth place in the WAC with an 8-10 conference record (20-27 overall), and would stand to make the tournament were the season to end today.

The team will have a week-long layoff before heading to Stockton to play University of the Pacific on Tuesday, then will come back home to play Stanford the next day before continuing conference play May 12 against Nevada.

Last weekend, the Hornets went up against the WAC’s top team, Hawaii, who sported a 29-12 record (7-6) going into the series. The Hornet pitching staff was up to the task, allowing just 13 runs in the three games, but the normally potent Hornet hitters were shut down by the Rainbows’ pitching staff, scoring just two runs in each of the weekend games.

In Friday’s game, Hornet starter Matt Campbell nearly matched Hawaii star Steven Wright inning for inning, going eight frames and allowing just three runs (two earned) on eight hits. However, with the Hornets leading 2-1, a sixth inning triple by Rainbows right fielder Matt Inouye and an error on the same play by Gary Johnson scored two runs and gave Wright all the runs he needed to finish the game and push his record to 8-2 on the year.

The Hornets dropped the next two games, both by scores of 5-2. The Hornet bats were silenced by Hawaii starter Justin Costi (6-1) on Saturday, with a home run by Brian Blauser (his eighth of the season) and an RBI single by Everet Rincon accounting for both of the Hornets’ runs.

On Sunday, the Sac State bats were once again silenced, this time by Hawaii starter Ian Harrington (5-3). Hornet starter John Schlager was tagged with the loss as he struggled in his first start after shutting down Louisiana Tech a week before. Despite the sweep, the Hornets know that they remain in good shape going into the season’s final stretch. And besides, bouncing back from tough losses has been a characteristic of this team all season, as evidenced by the strong chemistry the team has developed over the season.

“This team, we’re not getting down on ourselves ever,” Schlager said. “We always knew, even at the start of the year, that we could keep our confidence up.”

The team got off to a rough start to the year, but since the beginning of April, the team has been playing over .500 baseball, and that confidence has been high. The players say that if they continue to stay focused, they can do some damage when tournament time comes around.

“We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves,” third baseman David Flores said. “We’re a lot better than a lot of people think. If we just keep on doing what we’re doing, if we just continue to execute, we’ll come out on top.”

Paul Rice can be reached at [email protected]