The sound of cleats on concrete and cracking of bats means that baseball has returned to John Smith Field for a new season of Hornets baseball starting Friday at home.
Sacramento State had their season ended by Tarleton State in their first elimination game last year at the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, finishing with a record of 26-31.
Sac State needs to fill the shoes of key offensive players who graduated over the offseason. Graduates Gunner Gouldsmith, Jorge Bojorquez and Cesar Valero had 642 at-bats all together, roughly 33% of all the at-bats the Hornets took last season.
“It’s a newer roster, but I think there’s some experience there with some guys that just haven’t had a chance yet,” Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen said.
This new roster is full of true freshmen who bring along accolades and some metal already in the cabinet, like freshman infielder Michael Perazzo from Junipero Serra High School, where he brought the Padres a 2024 West Catholic Athletic League title.
Christiansen said Perazzo will be the starting shortstop taking up the mantle in Gouldsmith’s absence.
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Joining Perazzo on the left side is Vancouver native redshirt sophomore infielder Jakob Poturnak.
Poturnak comes with awards, being one of only five junior college players to be named to the Canadian Baseball Network’s All-Canadian first team. With the Cloud County Community College Thunderbirds Poturnak hit .332 with 69 hits and a whopping 49 runs across 58 games.
Junior infielder JP Smith is the only returning top-three hitter from last year’s team. Smith has had a busy offseason, playing for the Orleans Firebirds in the Cape Cod League.
Despite having a monster season last year, hitting a team-leading 22 home runs, Smith said he still worked to improve his game over the break.
Smith said he worked on adjusting his toe step to shorten his stride and make it easier to get his bat on the ball. He said he is also working on reducing his strikeouts, which he led the team in with 78 last year.
“Just more mental adjustments, not being so jumpy, just mature as a hitter,” Smith said.
With Smith and a young core, Christiansen is hopeful the roster can make the adjustments necessary to fill the holes left by graduating Hornets.
“They might have to score runs in a little bit different ways, but I’m confident going into the first week of where we’re at offensively,” Christiansen said.
Aside from the position players, senior pitcher Evan Gibbons said he is excited at the prospect of having a full rotation.
“The expectation this year is to do a little bit better than we did last year,” Gibbons said of the Hornets pitching staff. “This is the first time in a while we’ve had four guys on the weekend rotation.”
Gibbons is the veteran starter for the Hornets and led the team with 81 innings pitched, 60 strikeouts and six wins – along with two complete games.
Joining the veteran starter is senior pitcher Tyler Stewart, who will be getting the opening-day start from Christiansen. Stewart, like Smith, comes back from an offseason of mechanical work.
Stewart said he added a slider to his repertoire, which he hopes will allow him to get ahead of hitters and miss bats.
Filling out the rest of the four-man rotation will be junior pitchers Colin Hunter and Ethan Lay.
Last year, Lay played for the Chico State Wildcats, boasting 55 innings and 43 strikeouts. Hunter last pitched for the Hornets in 2022, had 72 innings of work and 62 strikeouts to show for it.
In the bullpen is redshirt sophomore Kade Brown, who will fill the closer role he solidified for himself last season by pitching 38.2 innings and striking out 54 batters, racking up a team-leading eight saves last season, which is tied for 10th in the school’s single-season record and 34th in the NCAA.
Brown said he doesn’t shy away from the high-intensity moments that being a closer brings.
“I live for the high-leverage moments, I kind of like the adrenaline,” Brown said.
Brown enters this year with a few honors as well, being named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-American second team, the third Hornet to earn the honor and the first since Brennan Leitao in 2015.
With the combination of Brown and junior pitcher Carson Latimer, Christiansen said he is confident his bullpen will have the later innings locked down.
“I’m really excited about our bullpen. I think our best teams have also been really, really strong at the back end of the game,” Christiansen said. “Those two guys give us a great chance to finish games.”
While the 2025 Hornets roster is chock full of newcomers, it’ll be up to veterans like Smith, Brown, Stewart and Gibbons to guide this roster.
The Hornets’ first game is Friday at John Smith Field where they’ll take on their Northern California neighbors University of San Francisco for a home-away schedule through Monday.
