The Sacramento State baseball team’s offensive drought continued as the Hornets dropped their sixth in a row in a 3-1 loss to the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.

Sac State jumped out early in the second inning from an unlikely source when freshmen infielder Carter Loud ripped a single to left-center field that scored the game’s first run. The run would be the only offense the Hornets would produce the rest of the game.

The single and RBI for Loud was the first for his Sac State career. He also added a drag-bunt single in the seventh inning, and was 2-3 in the game.

“It felt real good. I was just trying to have fun and stay within myself,” Loud said. “It was a good team we lost to today, but if we get our minds right, we can come out and crush these guys.”

Sac State will wrap up its series with the Golden Gophers on Thursday afternoon.

The team is missing the bat of Trevor Paine in the middle of its lineup. Paine, who is Sac State’s biggest threat at the plate, suffered an injury to his wrist when he was hitting during batting practice. The pain was so intense he had to stop immediately. The team is monitoring the injury, but Paine said he will not be back until next week.

“I took a swing and felt a pop in my wrist. I couldn’t grip the bat and I could feel the pain going through my wrist,” Paine said. “I hope it’s not a stress fracture and nothing too serious so I can be back on the field.”

Paine or not, the team is going through some growing pains of its own. The hits just aren’t coming with runners in scoring position and the team’s head coach, Reggie Christiansen, is hoping it’s not a trend that lasts all season.

“It’s one of those things, the more you talk about it, the worse it gets,” Christiansen said. “They try and put extra pressure on themselves rather than just letting the at-bat take care of itself. It is a process and we’ve got a ways to go, but if they continue to work at it then we should be just fine.”

Sac State dropped to 4-13 on the season. Hornets starter Karl Maaslost his second game of the year falling to 1-2.

You can reach Joe Fleming at [email protected]