Home runs by Josh Powers and Justin Lamb proved to be the only bright spot for the Sacramento State baseball team as it fell to its archrival, the UCDavis Aggies, 11-3 on Friday in the first game of a three-game series

The Aggies drew the game’s first runs, scoring two unearned in the top-half of the third inning after a two-out Hornet error.

It did not take the Hornets long to respond. In the bottom-half of the inning, Powers crushed a ball off the third level of the Hornet parking structure that pulled Sac State back within a run at 2-1.

To start the fourth, Davis’ David Popkins drilled a shot to right field bumping the Aggie lead to 3-1. Still in the top of the inning, Scott Kalush brought Eric Johnson home, boosting the UC Davis lead to 4-1.

“I felt like I had all my pitches working well,” Sac State starting pitcher Jesse Darrah said. “I thought I was hitting all my locations for the most part, but I missed a few and I paid for it.”

In the bottom of the fifth, the Hornets pulled within a run, as Brent Hottman led the inning off with a walk, which was the followed by a home run to left by Lamb, his first of the season, cutting the lead to 4-3.

“He threw me a changeup and I tried to stay back and put a good swing on it and it just left the yard,” Lamb said.

The Aggies stretched the lead in the top of the seventh, after their head coach Rex Peters was ejected from the game with one out in the inning. UC Davis scored three runs in that inning and never looked back. The Aggies scored two more runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to make the lead 11-3.

“We just have to regroup and go back at it tomorrow,” head coach John Smith said.

The Hornets and Aggies go back at it tomorrow at Dobbins Stadium in Davis at 1:05 p.m..

Sergio Saldana can be reached at [email protected]