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Box Score 2 SACRAMENTO -- Dawsen Bacho finished 5-for-8 with four runs scored, while Eli Saul won his third consecutive start in the opener on Friday afternoon, helping the Sacramento State baseball team split a Western Athletic Conference doubleheader with Seattle U at John Smith Field.
The Hornets (16-18 overall, 8-9 WAC) opened the day with a 15-5 win in eight innings before the Redhawks (9-21, 7-10) bounced back to take an 8-2 victory in game two. The rubber match is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Saturday (April 16) in a game that was originally scheduled for Noon, but pushed back due to rain in the forecast in the morning.
Nine different players scored runs for Sacramento State on the day, while 10 different Hornet hitters drove in runs, including four by Josh Rolling and three more off the bat of Dylan McPhillips. Bacho, McPhillips, and Jorge Bojorquez, drew a pair of walks each, while Keith Torres was hit by a pitch three times and drew a walk in the two games to account for half of his plate appearances on the day.
GAME 1: SACRAMENTO STATE 15, SEATTLE U 5 (F/8)
Josh Rolling finished 2-for-4 with a home run and four runs driven in, while Dylan McPhillips was one of four Hornets with at least two hits and drove in three, as Sacramento State improved to 9-0 in series openers with a 15-5 win ended in eight innings due to the run rule.
Sophomore Eli Saul (5-0) earned the win, allowing just three earned on six hits and striking out four over six innings. Kevin Haynes wrapped up the day with two innings of shutout baseball, allowing just one hit to nail down the victory.
Peter Chronowski (2-4) suffered the loss, allowing three earned (five overall) on four hits while striking out four over four innings.
After spotting the Redhawks a run in the second, Nick Iwasa's bases-loaded two-out single to left scored Keith Torres and Steven Moretto for the Hornets' first lead of the day. Seattle U tied the game with a run in its half of the second before Sacramento State opened the floodgates, plating three runs on Rolling's fifth home run of the season and adding another in the fifth on a passed ball to build a three-run lead.
The Redhawks made it a one-run game with a pair in the sixth, but it was all Hornets from that point on as the home side scored four in the sixth, four in the seventh, and walked it off with a run in the eighth.
Heard laced an RBI single up the middle, Moretto added a sac fly, and McPhillips plated two more with a ball back through the box, giving Sacramento State some breathing room. Cesar Valero and McPhillips scored runs with doubles in the seventh, while Torres scored a run with a sac fly, and Rolling drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 14-5.
Dawsen Bacho then walked the Hornets off turning a lead-off single by Gunner Gouldsmith into a two-out game-ending double for the final tally.
Bacho and Heard scored three runs apiece, with Jorge Bojorquez, Moretto, and Rolling plating a pair of runs each. Seven of the Hornets' nine starters finished with at least one hit, while McPhillips added a pair of walks and Torres was twice hit by a pitch.
GAME 2: SEATTLE U 8, SACRAMENTO STATE 2
Dawsen Bacho finished 3-for-4 with a run scored and Josh Walker clubbed his third home run of the season to pace the offense, but a pair of three-run innings was more than enough for the Redhawks, who won the nightcap by an 8-2 score.
Bacho's performance was his eighth multi-hit game of the season and his third with three hits, joining offensive outbursts against Northern Illinois (Feb. 20) and New Mexico State (April 9). It was just one hit shy of his season high of four hits set in the season opener against the Huskies back on Feb. 18.
Meanwhile, Walker's third home run was his first since a solo shot against Dixie State on March 13. Four of his five RBI this season have come via the long ball.
The bottom of the Seattle U order staked the visitors to a 3-0 lead in the second thanks to a run-scoring single, double, and a sac fly. Sacramento State clawed a run back in its half of the inning after Bacho led-off with a single, moved to third on a one-out double by Josh Rolling, and scored on a Martin Vincelli-Simard groundout to make it 3-1.
That would be as close as the Hornets would get, however, as another three-run inning in the third allowed Seattle U to pull away. Three straight hits — including a triple to centerfield — scored a pair of runs, and the Redhawks went up 6-1 on a single by Jackson Lind later in the inning.
Walker's home run in the sixth got Sacramento State back on the scoreboard, but a pair of RBI singles in the seventh by Derek Gellos and Grant Heiser put the game out of reach.
Brady Liddle (2-3) earned the run for the Redhawks, allowing the two runs on eight hits while striking out seven over 6.2 innings of work. Colin Hunter (2-3) suffered the loss, allowing six runs on seven hits over six innings before the bullpen took over.
