After suffering two agonizing losses at the hands of the University of San Francisco, Sacramento State’s baseball team rebounded Sunday to beat USF 9-3 at Hornet Field.

Sac State fell to USF on Friday 8-7 in a twelve-inning heartbreaker and came up-short again on Saturday with a 3-2 defeat.

Sunday’s win kept the Hornets above the .500 mark with a record of 8-6.

“I know we wanted (to win) because the first two games were close. To come out and get a win feels pretty good,” sophomore pitcher Chris Kinsey said. “We came out and we got it done.”

USF was first to get on the scoreboard when Cy Donald hit a single down the third-base line, scoring Luke Gradishar.

Later in the inning with the bases loaded, Kinsey escaped trouble when designated hitter Steve Booth became one of Kinsey’s eight strikeout victims.

The Hornets answered in the bottom of the fourth inning, rattling USF starting pitcher Justin Allred.

Bret LeVier, hit a shot into cente rfield which allowed Evans and Celillo to come across the plate, giving Sac State the 2-1 advantage.

In the top of the fifth inning, Kinsey walked Nick Tarbat and Joe Jacobitz singled to center field to bring in Tarbat to tie up the score. Booth then doubled to center field sending in Jacobitz and giving the Dons a one run advantage.

The Hornet offense rallied for four runs off USF relief pitcher T.J. Franco in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Shortstop Tito Barba doubled into deep right field, bringing in Fuller to tie the game at three.

Second baseman Everet Rincon hit the ball past USF’s shortstop to score the go-ahead run for the Hornets.

Kinsey came to the plate next for the Hornets, and with an drive to centerfield, scored Barba and center fielder Tim Reimer to give the Hornets a three-run advantage.

Kinsey led the Sac State offense going 2-for-4 and 3 RBIs, raising his team leading RBI total to twenty.

Kinsey picked up his second win of the season, pitching eight innings, allowing seven hits and improving his record to 2-1.

“I definitely needed something like this,” Kinsey said. “I felt a lot more in command of my pitching and it felt good.”

Rincon was satisfied with the win which gave the Hornets revenge for the losses suffered at the hands of the Dons.

“We didn’t play well the whole week and it felt good to end the week on a good note,” Rincon said. “We took care of a lot of things. We had a few mistakes, but we’ll be alright.”

Sac State had lost three-straight games heading into Sunday, including a 7-5 loss to Santa Clara University on Tuesday.

On Friday, the Hornets rebounded from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game at six at the end of nine innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, Kinsey approached the plate and pitcher Kevin Rose, who had only given up one run at this point, helplessly watched as Kinsey hit a three-run home run over the fence, bringing in Barba (double) and Rincon (walk).

The Hornets then scored two more in the ninth to tie the game.

After going up by one run in the top of the 12th inning, the Hornets could not hold on, as Cirbo and Booth both scored to give the Dons their fourth victory of the season.

Rincon started the scoring for Saturday’s game when Celillo singled off Josh Reidt of USF.

The Dons then scored one run in the third inning and two more in the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead.

In the sixth inning, Reimer scored Sac State’s only other run off an error by USF.

Sophomore Marshall Plouffe took his first loss of the season on the mound, pitching eight innings and giving up seven hits and three runs in 29 at bats. Plouffe also struck out eight in a very promising outing.

The Hornets will next take part in a three-game, weekend series against Washington State University. Friday and Saturdays’ games are set to start at 2 PM, while Sundays game will start at noon.

The Hornets faced University of Nevada on Tuesday, results were not in by presstime.