Sacramento State baseball continued their road trip into Bellevue, Washington against Seattle University and destroyed the Redhawks all weekend for their first sweep and WAC series win.
Friday: Sacramento State 14, Seattle 2
The series opened with another impressive offensive performance by the Hornets as they took it to the Redhawks accumulating 15 hits through eight innings.
Seattle scored the first run in the first after senior third baseman Derek Gellos smoked a double to left center.
The Hornets fought back with a two-run bomb by junior left fielder Matt Masciangelo scoring senior shortstop Gunner Gouldsmith in the third inning. This was followed up in the fourth with a single down the right-field line by sophomore catcher Jacob Cortez scoring senior third baseman Jorge Bojorquez to extend the lead 3-1.
The Redhawks answered back with a solo jack by junior right fielder Jackson Reed to cut the Hornets lead to 3-2.
After that, the game was all Sac State as they went on to score 11 runs between the sixth and eighth inning.
Bojorquez hit a three-run nuke for his second home run of the season for a climatic walk-off to end the game early in the eighth, 14-2.
This was the fourth run scored in the game by Bojorquez which broke the school record of the most runs at 143. This record was previously held by former Hornets Derrick Chung and Matt Smith.
RELATED: Sac State gets in some fowl-play in Oregon
“For the most part, these guys really did well,” Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen said. “I think they’re in a very good spot right now.”
Bojorquez said this win was awesome to get. He also said his home run felt amazing to get.
“I’m not a guy of many words, but it was pretty cool,” Bojorquez said. “Coach Reggie’s been saying to swing the bat more and when I was rounding third base he said ‘Good things happen when you swing the bat.’”
Bojorquez said his team is going to keep the same energy as they had today to beat Seattle.
Saturday: Sacramento State 9, Seattle 1
Sac State dominated Seattle top to bottom for the second game in a row, as they scored nine unanswered runs.
The Hornets scored their first run in the second inning when freshman second baseman Cameron Sewell hit a fielder’s choice to score sophomore first baseman JP Smith to start the game 1-0.
It wouldn’t take long for the Hornets to score again, this time with a sacrifice fly by Cortez to score senior designated hitter Cesar Valero to make it 2-0.
Smith got back to his home run-hitting ways when he bombed a two-run shot to left-center giving the Hornets a 4-0 lead.
The Hornets continued scoring runs up to the eighth inning holding the lead at 9-0.
Seattle scored only one run in the ninth with a flyout by freshman pinch hitter Royce Hale to score senior pinch hitter Ryne Hays.
This was all the Redhawks could muster as the Hornets shut them down and got the final out at second base to win their first series in the WAC.
Sunday: Sacramento State 8, Seattle 5
Sac State had a more competitive game in their third game against Seattle who attacked the fastball more than they did in the first two games.
The Hornets got off to a quick start by scoring in the first inning with a soft single to first base by junior center fielder Tyler White to score Gouldsmith holding the lead.
Seattle fought back in the bottom of the second and scored four runs, taking their largest lead of the series. The Redhawks rally was capped off with a single to right field by Gellos to score graduate shortstop Trevor Antonson taking the lead at 4-1.
Sac State swarmed and scored seven runs off of four home runs by Bojorquez, Smith, Gouldsmith and Sewell from the fourth to the eighth inning.
Sewell capped it off with a grand slam for his first collegiate home run in the eighth scoring Bojorquez, Valero and sophomore pinch-runner Brett Ott to take back their lead to 8-4.
Seattle tried to fight back, scoring off of a single up the middle by Hays, but they were halted by the Hornets when they got the final out, ending the game 8-5.
“This was a really good week,” Christiansen said. “For us to come up on the road to sweep someone is really hard to do.”
Christiansen said he also noticed the team has been playing like they have nothing to lose after their loss to the University of Oregon on Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, it’s a college baseball game,” Christiansen said. “I think the team that plays the loosest comes out on top.”
Sewell said he was ecstatic after the sweep and his grand slam.
“It was electric,” Sewell said. “I don’t even have words to explain it. It was amazing.”
Sewell said he’s finally seeing the team click together and create a real chemistry amongst each other.
“I think that this road trip had a huge factor with us clicking,” Sewell said. “I think that this sweep is gonna bring a lot of energy into the next couple of weekends for conference play.”
Sac State will make their next stop in another midweek game on Tuesday against Stanford University at 6 p.m.
