Sophomore infielder Cameron Sewell walked up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against UC Davis with two outs and two on.

The Tuesday night game against the Causeway rivals was the final of five games in as many days. Sewell had the opportunity to put a close to the longest stretch of games of the Hornet season and win the season series against the Aggies.

But it wasn’t to be. Sewell watched a strike three fastball groove its way into the zone and was wrung up looking.

The Hornets won 3-of-5 during their marathon week, sweeping UC Riverside and dropping a game each against Stanford and Davis.

The 5-game series demonstrated what the Hornets need to bring to the close of the season as they prepare to take on Grand Canyon for a 3-game series.

Top of the lineup on fire

Redshirt sophomore Jakob Poturnak had a quiet April at the plate and his average dropped from .350 on April 1 to .300 against UC Davis on Tuesday. The Hornets’ best bat falling silent during the final stretch of games could’ve been disastrous for a lineup that has relied on the third baseman’s explosive at bats all season.

In Tuesday’s game against the Aggies, Poturnak had his first multi-hit game since April 12, on his RBI double that brought the Hornets within three in the fifth. A hopeful sign for the Hornets, who’ll need him in top form in their upcoming series.

While Poturnak has been sliding down the lineup, junior outfielder Luis Pimentel-Guerrero has filled the gap. His .964 OPS leads the team while hitting from the second spot in the lineup.

Guerrero was one of two Hornet batters to rack up seven hits over the last week, scoring three runs.

Matching Guerrero’s pace is junior first baseman JP Smith. In game one against the Highlanders, Smith hit five RBIs by the end of the fifth inning, capping off his explosive day with a 2-run homer.

His effort propelled the Hornets to an 8-4 win against Riverside in the series opener. His total of six RBIs in all five games led the entire team in scoring.

Smith wasn’t alone in hitting the long ball. Senior right fielder Ryan Christiansen smashed a 2-run homer on Sunday.

After the Highlanders jumped ahead 4-0 in the first, the Hornets scored 9 unanswered runs through four innings on Sunday, capped off by Christiansen’s 2-run homer. He scored four RBIs on the day, propelling the Hornets to their largest scoring game of the week in a 9-6 win.

“We had to get a couple of runs back early,” Christiansen said. “ It’s a good feeling in the clubhouse, everybody is feeling good going into this week.”

Pitching staff firing on all cylinders

There was a chance the 5-game series could have taxed the Hornets’ bullpen, but a clean outing by almost the entire staff kept usage low.

The pitching staff combined for a 5.11 earned run average throughout the week, helping keep the Hornets’ Western Athletic Conference ERA the lowest in the division.

The best outing came from junior starter Ethan Lay, who cut down nine Highlanders on strikeouts in eight innings. The performance moved him to the top spot for ERA in the Hornet rotation at 3.09.

Lay took senior starter Tyler Stewart’s Saturday spot, solidifying his position as the second starter in Sac State head coach Reggie Christiansen’s rotation.

Lay was told about the move ahead of his Saturday start by the coaching staff, which he gladly accepted.

“It’s super exciting because then you’re able to get that second game,” Lay said. “Those are the biggest games, you want to get as many wins early as you can.”

The new role will carry into the next two series against GCU and Utah Valley, whom Sac State is currently tied for first place in the WAC.

“That’ll be the biggest one yet, and then the following part of the biggest or second biggest one right after. So, definitely time to focus,” Lay said.

Backing up a killer starting rotation was a bullpen that was lights out. It’d be impossible to talk about the Hornets’ pitching staff without mentioning redshirt sophomore closer Kade Brown. He had two saves over the weekend, bringing his WAC-leading total to 13.

The closer is now tied for second for Sac State’s single-season saves record and is four saves away from the record set by Sutter McLoughlin in 2013.

Brown entered the 2025 season as the designated closer and Reggie Christiansen has seen no reason to stop bringing him in on close games all year.

“When you have Kade to finish a game, you always feel good about it,” Reggie Christiansen said.

Brown had one inning of work on back-to-back nights against the Highlanders, allowing just one hit on two strikeouts. His speed has been over-matching hitters all season. The closer hasn’t allowed a run or more than one hit in an outing since April 1, against Cal.

Defensive woes are a thing of the past

Sac State’s biggest fix of the season thus far has been fielding. After averaging an error a game to start the season, they’ve cleaned up their defense at almost every position.

Reggie Christiansen has begun performing defensive-based position changes late in games if his team is trying to hold a lead, opting to pull bat-first players like Guerrero for defensively minded players like Sewell.

Freshman shortstop Michael Perazzo earned himself a starting spot by putting together the best plays all season, including 24 of the Hornets’ 29 double plays.

“Michael’s not playing like a freshman,” Reggie Christiansen said. “They take pride in it before games and take many ground balls in practice.”

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Smith’s glove at first base is just as important. His ability to dig out errant throws all season has put a stop to potential rallies almost every game. He’s been the only player to play first base since the season began.

In the final game against UC Riverside, two double plays ended the game for the Hornets, both of which Smith had to perform acrobatics to get his glove on the ball.

“Inning-ending double plays, it help our pitchers, especially after long innings and long at-bats,” Smith said. “We just think we started off slow on the defensive side. I think we realized how important it is, especially when you have two one-ball games.”

The Hornets ended their series winning 3-of-5. While the team was obviously disappointed in the results, their coach saw some silver lining in his team’s performance.

“It’s crazy to think about, we played five in a row,” Reggie Christiansen said. “We played Stanford tough yesterday in a 2-1 game, and to bounce back and play again in a 1-run game. It was bad scheduling by me, but you don’t pass on an opportunity to play Stanford.”

With first place on the line, Sac State will travel to Arizona to face off against Grand CU for a 3-game series starting Friday at 7:00 p.m.