The Sacramento State baseball team dropped the first game of a three-game non-conference series to the Gonzaga Bulldogs Friday afternoon at Hornet Field, 4-3.

Trailing by two runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Hornets were only able to score one run before Gonzaga’s freshman pitcher Cody Martin slammed the door shut for his third save of the season.

With the win the Bulldogs improved their record to 13-8 on the season while the loss dropped Sac State’s record to 5-12.

After walking the first two batters of the game on 3-2 counts, Hornet junior starting pitcher Ramirez served up a three-run home run to senior right fielder Marcus McKimmy, his third of the season. It would prove to be the only runs Ramirez allowed as he settled down to pitch five consecutive scoreless innings after the first inning.

The Hornets clawed their way back into the game scoring a run in both the third and fourth innings. In the third inning, senior left fielder Ryan Blair singled up the middle, scoring senior catcher Tim Kirkman.

Sac State scored in the fourth inning when sophomore center fielder Tim Wheeler sacrifice bunted a ball up the first base line plating senior third baseman David Flores from third base.

Gonzaga added an insurance run and the eventual game-winning run in the eighth inning when McKimmy scored on freshman second baseman Hunter Martinez’s throwing error on what was potentially a double play.

“Everybody is going to make errors. Hunter is amazing with the glove and has a great arm to first,” Hornet junior shortstop Blake Crosby said about his second baseman. “Errors are going to happen?that’s just part of the game. It just happened to be at that time but (Martinez) is mentally tough and I know he’ll come back tomorrow and play a great game defensively.”

Martinez did his best to make up for the error by singling in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, scoring the Hornets’ third run.

The Hornets wasted two scoring opportunities in both the fifth and sixth innings that might have changed the outcome of the game.

In the fifth inning Sac State failed to take advantage of runners on first and second with one out after Crosby and Kirkman both got hit by a pitch.

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Hornets had runners on second and third base with only one out. Senior designated hitter Wes Oberlin struck out swinging and senior right fielder Brian Boyd flied out to left field on the first pitch he saw in the at-bat to end the scoring threat.

“We had chances throughout the game to come through and we didn’t,” Crosby said.

The Hornets left a total of eight runners on base during the game while the Bulldogs only left five runners on base.

The two teams will meet up again at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow for a doubleheader at Hornet Field.

Andrew Eggers can be reached at [email protected]