SACRAMENTO -- Senior Martin Vincelli-Simard and freshman Jacob Cortez each finished with a pair of hits on the day to help pace a 10-hit Hornet attack, but a seven-run sixth inning by visiting UT Arlington broke open a tie game and the Mavericks held off the Hornets for a 12-10 victory on Sunday afternoon at John Smith Field.
Sacramento State moved to 18-18 overall on the year and 6-9 in Western Athletic Conference play, while UTA improved to 19-17 overall and 9-6 in league action.
A double by Vincelli-Simard and a single by Cesar Valero staked the home team to an early lead, while Jeffery Heard added a run-scoring ground ball to put the Hornets up 3-0. Sacramento State answered a single run by the Mavericks in the second with one of its own as an error scored Griffin Harrison, who singled, to rebuild its three-run lead.
UT Arlington wasted little time in tying the game with three runs in the top of the third, using three consecutive RBI singles to make it a 4-4 contest, then broke the game open in the sixth, sending 10 batters to the plate. The Mavericks broke the tie with a run-scoring groundout for a 5-4 advantage, but took advantage of a pair of errors that should have ended the inning to tack on six more runs and threaten to run away and hide.
Undaunted, the Hornets battled back. A two-run home run by Josh Rolling (his fifth) got the scoring started following a lead-off walk to Heard and, after a pitching change, Wehiwa Aloy cashed in Jacob Cortez with an RBI double. With runners at second and third, Vincelli-Simard drove home his second and third runs of the game with a single to center, closing the gap to 11-9.
That would be as close as Sacramento State would get, however, as UTA added an insurance run in the ninth on Tyson Pointer's second home run of the day, a blast that was matched by Heard in the home half, who slugged his fifth of the year to get the Hornets to within two. After a walk to Rolling, Sacramento State had the tying run at the plate, but Matt Novis induced a pop-up to end it.
Cooper Rons (2-3) was charged with the loss despite striking out a Hornet career-high six batters over 3.1 innings of relief, allowing just one earned run on two hits in that span. Zach Norris (2-0) earned the win, striking out five while allowing just two runs on two hits over four innings of relief, while Novis picked up his first save of the year.
Jorge Bojorquez walked twice and scored a pair of runs for the Hornets while Sacramento State had eight of its nine starters collect a hit on the day. The 10 hits marked the second straight day that the Hornets finished with double-digit hits and the 13th time overall this year.
Home runs by Rolling and Heard gave Sacramento State its 50th and 51st home runs of the season (in 36 games) — the third consecutive year that the Hornets have hit at least 50 as a team and the longest such stretch of 50 home run seasons since the 2001 (50), 2002 (60), and 2003 (57) campaigns. Sacramento State has hit a home run in each of its last three games and eight of its last 10 overall — including multiple home runs in six of those contests.
Sunday's contest was the final home game for the Hornets for a while as Sacramento State embarks on a season-long run of nine consecutive games away from home beginning Tuesday (April 18) at 6 p.m. at Stanford, and continuing with a WAC series at SeattleU next weekend (April 21-23). The Hornets don't return to John Smith Field until May 5 to open a three-game series against conference rival UT Rio Grande Valley.
