Hornets split doubleheader against UC Irvine

Powers Hitting:Josh Powers first baseman bats for the Sac State Hornets at the game on Saturday at the Hornet baseball field.:Julie Keefer State Hornet

Powers Hitting:Josh Powers first baseman bats for the Sac State Hornets at the game on Saturday at the Hornet baseball field.:Julie Keefer State Hornet

Sergio Saldana

In a complete game effort, sophomore right-hander, Jesse Darrah pitched the Sacramento State Hornet baseball team to a 2-1 victory over the UC Irvine Anteaters Saturday. UC Irvine took game two of the double header by a score of 5-3.

In game one, the tempo was dominated by the great pitching. Scoring early in the battle, the Anteaters took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a Casey Stevenson solo home run.

That would ultimately be the last run of the contest for UC Irvine as Darrah’s pitching would seal the deal in the win.

Going into the bottom of the eighth inning, junior Kirby Young singled to lead off the inning. Next, sophomore Justin Lamb sacrificed the runner along with a bunt. Lamb was able to reach safely on a throwing error by Irvine which gave the Hornets runners at first and third with nobody out. Pinch hitter junior Trevor Paine drew a walk, which loaded up the bases. Freshman Blake Miller came up and deployed a suicide squeeze, scoring young from third to tie the game at 1-1.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Hornets managed to load up the bases again due to Anteater pitching. Andy Lines threw a wild pitch, scoring junior Derrick Chung from third base to give the Hornets the 2-1 win.

Game two was a different story.

The Anteaters were able to score four early runs to give UC Irvine a 4-0 lead by the end of three innings. Sac State was held scoreless until the sixth inning where they scored three runs making the score 4-3. Miller singled to lead off the inning. Senior Josh Powers came up and sacrificed a bunt to move Miller to second. Junior Trevor Bloom singled to score Miller from second, and then Young doubled to center, scoring Powers and Miller.

In the top of the ninth UC Irvine scored a run off of an RBI fly out to make the score 5-3. The Hornets went down in order in the bottom of the inning, giving the Anteaters the 5-3 victory.

After the day, the Hornets record went to 6-8 overall with just a month left in their non-conference schedule.

Sergio Saldana can be reached at [email protected]