Sacramento State took on UT Arlington at John Smith Field for the first Western Athletic Conference series of the year, taking home two wins.

In what seems to be the Hornet playstyle, they cashed in on all their scoring early in the series, but the tank steadily ran out before the final game.

Friday: UT Arlington 3, Sac State 8

Sac State jumped ahead of Arlington immediately, scoring the first runs of the series with a booming 2-run homer by senior outfielder Ryan Christiansen to right field for a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

With runners on second and third, redshirt junior catcher Elie Kligman hit a sacrifice fly deep enough to bring the Hornets’ third run home, making it 3-0. Senior starter pitcher Evan Gibbons kept the momentum going, throwing three scoreless innings while striking out three.

Following a double to left field, Gibbons allowed a 2-out single to right field by redshirt junior infielder Tyce Armstrong for a score of 3-1 in the sixth.

The first baseman kept the scoring going for Arlington. In the sixth, he hit one of the farthest home runs of the series, a monstrous blast to center field that bounced off the top of the scoreboard to knot the game at 3-3.

That home run ended up being the final run scored by the Mavericks Friday night. As with the weather, their bats went cold against a Hornet bullpen that heated up.

Senior pitcher Noah Lucchesi inherited runners on first and second in the seventh. The Mavericks looked prime to jump ahead, but the reliever attacked the batter with his down in the zone breaking ballearning a swinging strikeout to end the inning.

The Hornets scored five more runs, highlighted by an RBI triple to right field by Christiansen. He completed his trip around the bases after a passed ball made its way to the backstop, scoring the Hornet’s final run to seal the game 8-3.

Saturday: UT Arlington 0, Sac State 1

The Sac State offense found themselves in one of their longest dry spells of the year in Saturday’s game.

With UT Arlington’s sophomore starter pitcher Nicholas Robb not allowing a single hit until the fifth inning, it was clear that Hornet hitters were over-matched.

As hits were hard to come by, Sac State pitching, once again, bailed out a struggling offense. Senior starter pitcher Tyler Stewart came out of the game in the fourth inning, tying his shortest stint on the mound this year.

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In his place, junior reliever Carson Latimer took the mound for his sixth relief appearance this season. The two pitchers combined threw seven scoreless innings Saturday.

“We had talked about Latimer being a guy that can piggyback a game this weekend, if needed,” Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen said. “I just didn’t think Tyler looked especially sharp today. My gut said to bring Latimer in that spot.”

Latimer proved his coach’s intuition correct. He retired 10 Mavericks and allowed just one hit while striking out four across three innings, keeping the visiting team off the board.

Meanwhile, the Hornet offense tried to put together a strong inning that never materialized. It wasn’t until the eighth that Sac State put a runner in scoring position for the first time, but a strikeout left them stranded.

For the second game in a row, Reggie Christiansen called on his ace closer to get his team across the finish line. Redshirt sophomore pitcher Kade Brown entered the game in the eighth inning, his first back-to-back appearance in his career.

Despite the workload, Brown was up to the task. He pitched three frames, taking the Hornets to extra innings while allowing just one hit.

“Our pitchers just fight, man. They’re a bunch of dogs in there,” junior catcher Jacob Cortez said. “I trust every single guy that comes onto the mound, and I can trust them to throw strikes and get the job done. Today, they were unbelievable.”

Cortez was behind the dish for every single pitch of the 11-inning showdown. At the plate, however, his bat didn’t show up until the last possible moment.

Under threat of going 0-4, Cortez walked up to the plate in the eleventh inning with a 5-game dry spell in the batters’ box. He ended that streak with a sharp grounder to short, but the middle infielder couldn’t hang on to the ball, giving the speedy Cortez the time he needed to reach first and put the winning run aboard.

Cortez reached second on a single to center field, bringing up freshman infielder Michael Perazzo. He laid down the perfect sacrifice to move Cortez to third, setting the table for senior outfielder Tyler White.

White approached the at-bat with veteran confidence. He said after the game that he had worked through his head what they might throw him, with runners on second and third.

“I’m thinking they’re not going to throw me a fastball, and they’re not going to give me something to hit,” White said. “They’re probably going to try to get me to hit one in the ground soft, so I try to sit soft a little bit and put a good swing on it if I can.”

As if he could read the Arlington closer’s mind, that soft pitch found its way to White’s bat. He hit back up on a low curve to center field, scoring Cortez from third for a final score of 1-0.

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The senior with the RBI single up the middle in the bottom of the 11th as the Hornets down UT Arlington 1-0… Fourth walk-off win for Sacramento State this year & White’s third game-winning RBI in 2025… #StingersUp @WACsports pic.twitter.com/ew98XINBlh

— Sac State Baseball (@SacStBaseball) March 23, 2025

The team leaped over the railing onto the field to swarm their hero, dousing him with whatever water bottles they had. The relief of winning the grueling 11-inning effort was palpable.

While Sac State celebrated on the field, UT Arlington watched in disbelief. Arlington used just two pitchers across all eleven innings, allowing just four hits while earning four strikeouts. But it wasn’t enough.

“Their guy did a really good job of keeping us off balance all day,” White said. “At the end of the day, winning is hard in Division I, and we came out on top today. 1-0 is the same as 9-0, so I’ll take it.”

Reggie Christiansen wasn’t so understanding. He was critical of his team’s offense, hoping that Sunday’s game would yield better results in the batter’s box.

“We got away with it. There’s some things we need to do better,” Reggie Christiansen said. “Hopefully tomorrow, we bounce back and be a little bit better off.”

Sunday: UT Arlington 6, Sac State 1

White had the possibility of going 0-5 in Saturday’s game, but in his final at-bat in the eleventh inning, he got the one hit that mattered.

“It’s baseball, it happens,” White said. “One day you’ll score 15 runs, and the next day you’ll get shut out.”

White was on to something. Sac State was outhit mightily in Sunday’s series finale, collecting only eight against Arlington’s 14.

The top of the Hornet line-up went deathly silent across all nine innings. White, Christiansen and senior outfielder Luis Pimentel-Guerrero all went hitless.

The Hornets’ lone run came from Sewell, who collected two hits, including an RBI double in the fourth that cut the Maverick’s lead in half at 2-1. It was the closest the Hornets got to tying the game.

The Mavericks trounced the Hornets across the final five innings, thanks to a huge offensive game from junior infielder Xavier Melendez.

Melendez went 5-5, scoring four of his team’s six runs. He came just a double away from hitting the cycle. But he was tagged out while diving for a second, trying his best to turn a single to center into something more.

Despite being out on the play, his hit scored the final run of the game for a score of 6-1.

The Hornets will have one day off before welcoming Fresno State to John Smith Field on Tuesday.