Jesuit High School’s tradition of winning has made its way to Sacramento State’s baseball field this season through three of its players. 

The trio of senior Trevor Paine, sophomore Justin Higley and freshman Rhys Hoskins all chose to stay close to home, turning in their red and gold Jesuit uniforms into green ones.

 Second-year head coach Reggie Christiansen wasted no time recruiting Higley and Hoskins to solidify the outfield.

 “Watching both of those players play, it was an easy decision for me,” Christiansen said. “Neither one was hardly recruited and didn’t get a lot of interest, which shocks me.”

 Hoskins was quickly given a scholarship offer last spring and his presence in the lineup has already helped the Hornets, leading the team with a .407 batting average, eight home runs and 34 RBIs.

 His batting average also ranks No. 1 in the Western Athletic Conference.

 “If you look statistically, maybe that would surprise you as a freshman. But we knew he was going to be a special player,” Christiansen said.

 Hoskins’ success started well before coming to Sac State. 

As a senior on Jesuit’s baseball team, he hit three home runs and drove in 23 RBIs to help lead the Marauders to a 25-9 record and making it to the California Interscholastic Federation Sac-Joaquin Division I finals in 2011.

 “Learning how to win at a younger age just motivates you more,” Hoskins said. “You always want to win. Just learning how to be competitive (at Jesuit) has really helped me.”

In his first season playing Div. I baseball, Hoskins got some help from his high school teammate to learn what Sac State’s brand of baseball was all about. 

“Just knowing someone and having played with someone has made me more comfortable to start,” Hoskins said. “We have a great group of guys here.”

 Higley has slowly become the everyday center fielder and even though he is only a sophomore, he has transformed into a leader taking the new players like Hoskins under his wing.

 “We got all the freshmen involved when they got here and made sure they felt at home and not as part as the second group,” Higley said. “You win when you are close with a bunch of guys.”

 During his two years as a member of Jesuit’s varsity baseball team, Higley said he not only found success in the batter’s box, hitting a combined seven home runs, but also gave credit to his team’s chemistry on and off the field. 

“Every day at lunch we basically hung out as a team together,” Higley said. “I had a really close team that played very well because of that camaraderie.”

 In Higley’s two years of playing varsity baseball, he said he thanks his high school coach, Joe Potulny for teaching him both on and off the field.

 In his 19th season at Jesuit, Potulny has won five Sac-Joaquin Section Championships. Since 2004, he has led his players to more than 150 wins.

 Potulny said he coaches not on wins or losses, but how the game is played and how his players would prepare. 

If one of his players was not running hard, he would quickly take them out.

 “There is a kid in a wheelchair somewhere that would love to run,” Potulny said. “Nothing may come of it 99 times. But the 100th time if you are going hard the whole way, it makes the difference.”

 Not only is Potulny’s success reflected by championship banners hung by the dugout, it is also reflected by his player’s success off the field.

 “I think as teachers and coaches we deal with the best possible situations. They are good kids, they work hard.” Potulny said. “If you want to be a high school teacher and coach baseball this is the best place you could probably be and the students reflect that.”

 As conference play resumes, the Hornets did not look far for some big outfield bats. They were just five miles north, playing baseball at a local high school called Jesuit.

Ryan Kuhn can be reached at @rskuhn