The Sacramento State baseball team completed its second straight sweep within the Western Athletic Conference, beating Northern Colorado 6-3 in the final game of the three-game series on Sunday.

Sac State (17-10, 6-0 WAC) starting pitcher Grant Kukuk got the win and threw six innings, giving up just one run on 10 hits with four strikeouts and no walks, improving to 3-1 on the season. Jonny Palsha relieved Kukuk and threw one inning, giving up no runs on one hit. Austin Root closed the game out, pitching the final two innings. Root gave up two runs on three hits including a two-out home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“I think we played really good defense behind them today,” said Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen. “Those guys are ground ball guys, especially Austin, and they had opportunities, but we kept on making plays on defense to get out of innings.”

Sac State scored a run in the first inning for the third straight game against Northern Colorado. Andrew McWilliam reached base safely on an error by the shortstop. McWilliam stole second and scored on an RBI single up the middle by Matt Smith.

The Hornets posted two more runs in the bottom of the second inning. After a quick two outs, Sac State was able to string together three straight hits. Dan Deely started the two-out rally with a single to left field. Bronson Grubbs followed with a single to left field and advanced to second on the throw to third. McWilliam cashed in and scored Deely and Grubbs on a single to right field.

Sac State kept the ball rolling and scored three more in the bottom of the fourth inning to extend the lead to six. Brandon Hunley started the inning off with a single through the left side of the infield. Deely followed with a single to left center that advanced Hunley to third base. Grubbs laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Hunley and advanced Deely to third base. McWilliam drew a walk and stole second base to put runners on second and third for Trent Goodrich. Goodrich took advantage of the runners in scoring position and hit a two-RBI double to left center field.

Northern Colorado (5-19, 0-3 WAC) had no problem getting hits, but stringing them together was a different story. In the top of the fifth, they finally got a run across the plate. Rob Cashel led the inning off with a double to left center field. Cashel advanced to third on a ground ball hit by Joe Love. Jacob Ek followed with an RBI single up the middle of the infield.

Northern Colorado attempted to battle back in the ninth, but it was too little too late. After two outs were already recorded in the ninth inning, Ek singled to center field and Cole Maltese followed with a two-run home run over the left field fence.

Northern Colorado outhit Sac State, but could not string enough hits together to produce runs.

McWilliam tied the school record for most steals in a single game with four stolen bags, including two steals on back-to-back pitches in the second inning.

“I felt like I was getting really good jumps today and I was seeing the pitcher pretty well,” McWilliam said.

Eight out of the nine starters within the Sac State lineup posted a hit Sunday. Gunner Pollman and Deely each had two hits apiece. McWilliam led the production for the Hornets with two RBIs and two runs scored. Goodrich had the only extra base hit for Sac State with a double in the fourth inning.

“It’s difficult to sweep a series, no matter in conference or out of conference,” Christiansen said. “I’m really proud of the way our guys came out ready to do it today.”

Sac State will take on Fresno State in Fresno on Wednesday before traveling down to Bakersfield to take on CSU Bakersfield on Friday for the Hornets’ third three-game WAC series of the year.