As the sporting seasons are coming to an end, Sacramento State athletics are less than 12 points behind rival UC Davis in the brawl for the Causeway Cup. It is up to baseball, track and field and men’s golf to make a comeback.

With 20 points remaining, the cup score is 45-33.33, which is a big improvement from the fall semester when Davis had a massive lead over Sac State of 45-15.

“They got off to a huge start and we thought we were going to get blown out,” said media relations director Brian Berger. “But we’ve won everything since (Dec. 19), so we now have a chance to come back and win it.”

Sac State men’s soccer and men’s basketball are the only teams who were able to defeat Davis during the fall.

Men’s soccer head coach Michael Linenberger said a win against Davis means more than just a win to count in the record books.

“We make it clear all week long leading up to the game that it’s not just men’s soccer versus Davis, this is the athletic department versus Davis,” Linenberger said. “We’re trying to win for us, but we’re also trying to win for all the other sports, to try and help our department capture the Causeway Cup.”

Berger and assistant athletic director at Davis Mike Robles created the cup after the Aggies became a Division I school in 2004.

The competition for the cup started in fall 2005 and since then both Sac State and Davis have won three titles.

“It’s designed to increase the rivalry between the two schools,” Berger said. “It’s really a fun way to keep things interesting throughout the year.”

The baseball team has two chances to contribute points to the cup and senior catcher and infielder Derrick Chung said the team is ready to take the Aggies down.

“Last year we won two out of three games against them and we were more excited than ever,” Chung said. “We do care about the rivalry between the two schools so we will do our best to beat them as badly as possible.”

The men’s golf team is one of Sac State’s last chances to earn points in the Causeway Cup after the baseball team takes on Davis two consecutive weekends on April 11 and 17.

Sac State men’s golf head coach Christopher Hall said his team has a better national ranking(106) than Davis (120), yet it has never met head-to-head, so the rivalry is not much of a worry, but they still take pride in representing the school.

“It is different with golf because we don’t play teams head on,” said junior business administration major Jordan Swanson. “But often times when we’re practicing at courses around Sacramento, people will come up to us and the first thing often said is, ‘Are you guys better than Davis this year?’ So being able to answer ‘yes’ to that is nice.”

Although the golf team said the rivalry is not too big of a deal, it is confident in itself and the other Sac State teams to help bring home the cup this year.

“I know all of the respective athletes on baseball and track feel confident we can beat Davis and take back the cup,” said sophomore Jordan Weir. “We feel we will (also) do our part to help the cause.”

Track and field will be the last squad to earn points for Sac State to win the cup.

Sac State track and field head coach Kathleen Raske said the Causeway Classic meet is one of the teams’ favorite meets of the year and the team talks about it during the week leading up to it.

“It’s a great opportunity for track and field as a sport to mean something more than just running against the clock,” Raske said. “The head-to-head competition is what we love here at Sac State track and field and so it means a lot more and there’s a greater purpose to it.”

Raske said the track coaches have no problem putting extra pressure on the athletes because it is a huge rivalry and they should want it just as bad as the coaches.

“Last year our throws coach said to us, ‘Well it’s Causeway week and if you do not have a profound hatred of Davis by now, then now is the time to develop one.’ So I would say they take it very seriously,” said senior thrower Callan Duffy.

Duffy said the athletes take pride in beating Davis because there is more of a fulfillment in beating a rival school.

“Davis is the school we love to hate,” Duffy said. “We post team goals in the locker room for each season and near the top of the list was “Beat Davis In Everything” because it gives us more opportunities to remind them who has the better athletes.”

The Hornets have won every track meet against Davis since 2006 and Raske said the team knows what it is going to take to win the cup.

“The team totally knows what we’re all about, what our focus is and what our purpose is,” Raske said. “I think our team has the mentality of ‘Hey, bring it. Bring it on, we’re ready.’”

The Causeway Cup has been around for seven years and Berger said he has seen a noticeable increase in competition since its creation.

Chung said the rivalry is natural because the schools are so close in location to each other, and the win could also be beneficial to recruitment of new players.

“It’s important from the recruiting aspect because it’s usually easier to recruit a player over the other school when you can tell them that you beat them,” Chung said.

Sac State still has a chance to win the Causeway Cup, but for that to happen the athletes of Hornet baseball, men’s golf and track and field will have to continue the comeback and beat the cross-Causeway rivals.

Jillian Kweller can be reached at [email protected].