SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A run of five games in five days comes to a close early this week as the Sacramento State baseball team takes on a pair of non-conference foes in midweek action. The Hornets make the trip to the Bay Area to take on Stanford on Monday night (April 28) at 6 p.m., before coming back home for the third and final game against Causeway rival UC Davis 24 hours later on Tuesday (April 29) at 6 p.m.
PLAY BALL!
WHAT: Sacramento State (26-17, 10-5 WAC) at Stanford (21-19, 7-17 ACC)
WHEN: Monday, April 28, 2025
TIME: 6 PM PT
WHERE: Stanford, Calif.
STADIUM: Sunken Diamond
WATCH LIVE: ACC Network Extra / ESPN+
LIVE STATS: GoStanford.com
WHAT: UC Davis (20-23, 8-13 Big West) at Sacramento State (26-17, 10-5 WAC)
WHEN: Tuesday, April 29, 2025
TIME: 6 PM PT
WHERE: Sacramento, Calif.
STADIUM: John Smith Field
WATCH LIVE: ESPN+
LIVE STATS: HornetStats.com
TICKETS: HornetSports.com
GAME NOTES: Stanford | UC Davis | Western Athletic Conference
WE'LL DO IT LIVE
• Monday's game will be streamed live on the ACC Network Extra
• Tuesday's game will be streamed live on the ESPN+ and WAC International platforms
• Live Stats will also be available for the contests
• Links to all of the above are available on the baseball schedule page at HornetSports.com
ABOUT THE CARDINAL
• Stanford enters the week with a 21-19 overall record and a 7-17 mark in ACC play after dropping the final two games of a three-game set against Wake Forest at home
• Tuesday marks the fifth midweek game for the Cardinal this season — all of them at home — with Stanford winning all four of its previous outings: March 24 vs. San Jose State (W, 5-1); April 1 vs. Santa Clara (W, 6-5); April 7 vs. UC Davis (W, 4-0); April 21 vs. UC Davis (W, 11-1)
• Of the Cardinal's 21 wins this season, 14 of those have come at Sunken Diamond where Stanford is 14-13
• The Cardinal have played only 13 of their 40 games on the road
• Six Cardinal regulars are batting better than .300 on the year led by freshman outfielder Tatum Marsh's .376 average
• Marsh has scored 34 runs, slugged nine doubles, three home runs, and 23 RBI
• Senior infielder Trevor Haskins, who has a 1.026 OPS to go with a .341 average, leads the team with 11 doubles, 12 home runs, and 38 RBI
• Stanford is batting .301 as a team and has slugged 48 home runs while averaging 6.6 runs per game
• The Cardinal's pitching staff, however, has posted a 6.75 ERA and has struck out 347 batters in 345.1 innings, allowing opponents to hit .285 on the year
SERIES NOTES
• Stanford leads the all-time series with Sacramento State, 35-18, including a 23-15 lead in the series during the Hornets' Division I era
• Monday marks the third straight season that the two programs will meet head-to-head — all three of those meetings coming at Sunken Diamond in Stanford, Calif.
• Stanford won last season's meeting, 12-8, on April 16, snapping a two-game Sacramento State winning streak in the series which included a 3-2 win at home in 2021 and a 15-13 shootout victory in Stanford in 2023
• Monday marks the seventh time in the last eight meetings that the two teams will meet at Sunken Diamond dating back to the 2009 campaign
• The Hornets are 10-25 on the road against the Cardinal — including three meetings in the NCAA Tournament during the 2017 and 2019 NCAA Regionals
ABOUT THE AGGIES
• UC Davis enters the week with a 20-23 overall record and an 8-13 mark in Big West Conference play after being swept in a three-game conference series with Cal State Fullerton at home
• The Aggies have lost four of their last five when you include a loss at Stanford on April 21 and a 6-1 win over Washington state on April 23
• Tuesday's game marks UC Davis' 11th midweek game of the year as the Aggies are 6-4 in their previous 10 such contests
• Of the team's 20 wins this year, only eight have come away from home as UC Davis is 8-11 in road contests this year
• Junior pitcher/outfielder Braydon Wooldridge is the only Aggie regular batting better than .300 on the season, hitting a team-high .333 to go with 10 doubles, two home runs, and 21 RBI
• UC Davis has slugged only 14 home runs on the season, with four different players sharing the team lead with two apiece
• The Aggies' pitching staff has combined to post a 4.24 ERA — which ranks third in the Big West behind UC Santa Barbara (3.73) and Hawai'i (4.06) — while walking a league-low 144 batters on the year (3.41 walks/9 innings)
SERIES NOTES
• Tuesday marks the 241st all-time meeting between Sacramento State and UC Davis on the diamond according to available records that date back to 1950
• Records show that the two programs have played at least once in every season since 1950 with the exception of three years from 2020-22
• Sacramento State leads the all-time series by a 145-94-1 count, including a 47-40 lead in the Hornets' Division I era
• The two teams have split the first two meetings this year — both of those played in Davis, Calif. — with the Aggies winning the first by a 14-0 score on April 8 and the Hornets following up a week later with an 8-2 win on April 15
• Sacramento State's win in the latter snapped a four-game skid in the series with UC Davis — its first win in the series since May 9, 2023, by a 7-5 score at home
• Tuesday's game will be the rubber game in the midweek "series" between the two long-time rivals with the winner earning the right to host two of the three games between the two programs in the following season
• The Hornets won the "series" in 2023, taking the two games at home that year, before the Aggies' earned the sweep in 2024
• Sacramento State is only 56-50 when crossing the Causeway compared to an 88-39 record at home in the series
CONFERENCE CALL
• Sacramento State is a combined 34-85 against the current ACC baseball alignment, but all but two of those results are against either California (16-48) and Stanford (18-35) during their time as members of the Pac-12
• Outside of the Golden Bears and Cardinal, the Hornets have faced only two other ACC schools: falling 4-3 against Georgia Tech at the Rainbow Easter Tournament in Honolulu in 1986, and falling 2-0 to Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., in 2015
• Earlier this year, Sacramento State dropped a narrow 6-5 decision against California at John Smith Field after the Golden Bears rallied for two in the ninth to steal a victory
• Following a three-game sweep of UC Riverside over the weekend, Tuesday marks the final regular season meeting against a Big West Conference opponent this year
• The Hornets are a combined 300-383-3 (.440) against the current Big West baseball alignment
• With its win over UC Davis on April 15, Sacramento State snapped a six-game losing streak against Big West opponents and have now won four-in-a-row against the league after its sweep of the Highlanders
• After the 145 wins against UC Davis, the Hornets have won 29 games against both UCSB and Hawai'i, and 26 more against CSUN
MIDWEEK MADNESS
• Monday and Tuesday's games mark the ninth and 10th midweek games of the season for Sacramento State, which is 3-5 in its previous eight such contests
• Three of the team's eight midweek contests have been decided by a single run: A 3-2 loss at Fresno State on March 11, a 4-3 win over the Bulldogs on March 25, and a 6-5 loss to California on April 1
• The other four midweek contests saw the Hornets fall to Nevada (8-5) on March 10, defeat Pacific (13-3) on the road on March 18, fall at UC Davis on April 8 (14-0), defeat the Aggies on the road (8-2) on April 15, and fall at Nevada (12-6) on April 22
• Of the team's last 21 midweek games, nine have been decided by two runs or fewer, with seven of those nine decided by a single run
• The game against the Wolf Pack earlier this year was the latest midweek opener for the Hornets since facing Nevada on March 14, 2017, after opening that season with series against Washington State, Northern Kentucky, No. 11 Washington, and Penn State
• Last season, Sacramento State finished 5-8 in midweek games, posting wins over Fresno State, Nevada (twice), San Francisco, and No. 17 Oregon
LOOKING AHEAD
• The first of two key weekend series lie ahead for the Hornets, who make the trip to the desert to face Grand Canyon in a three-game series beginning Friday (May 2) and running through Sunday (May 4)
• The first two games of the series are scheduled for a 7 p.m. first pitch with Sunday's finale scheduled for a 1 p.m. start
• All three games will be streamed live on the ESPN+ and WAC International platforms
• The trip marks the first weekend series away from home since Sacramento State made is second of back-to-back trips to Texas to take on Abilene Christian on April 4-6
HORNET SHORT HOPS
• With a 26-17 overall record entering the week, the Hornets have already matched last season's win total
• With four more victories this season, Sacramento State will post its 12th season with 30-or-more wins in 15 years under Head Coach Reggie Christiansen
• The Hornets are coming off a three-game non-conference sweep of UC Riverside over the weekend, giving them their second series sweep of the year and their fourth straight weekend series win, improving the team to 7-1-3 in weekend series this season
• The seven series wins are the most for the Hornets since they won nine in 2022
• Last weekend's sweep was also the first for Sacramento State in the history of the series with the Highlanders
• With the three wins against UCR, the Hornets improved to 19-10 at John Smith Field this year — just one victory shy of the program's first 20-win season at home since 2023 (20-11) and the fifth under Head Coach Reggie Christiansen
• After playing nine of its last 11 at home, Sacramento State now faces a stretch that sees it play seven of its next nine on the road, including trips for weekend conference series in Arizona (Grand Canyon) and Utah (Utah Valley)
• Senior Tyler White has now reached base safely in each of his last 20 games, posting the longest such streak by a Hornet since Matt Masciangelo's 23-game streak (which dated back to 2024) came to an end on April 19 in the series finale vs. California Baptist
• White's 20-game streak this season is the longest in a single season since Ryan Walstad (25 games) and Bronson Grubbs (20 games) both did so in 2019
• White has hit safely 17 times during his 20-game streak while drawing a walk in the other three games to keep the run alive
• JP Smith's 17th double of the season in Sunday's finale against UC Riverside moved the junior to within two doubles shy of breaking into the top 10 on the school's single-season chart
• With six RBI last weekend against the Highlanders, Smith increased his career total to 131 — putting him in eighth place on the school's all-time list and just four shy of Will Fitzpatrick (1990-93) for seventh
• Sacramento State hitters showcased quite the eye at the plate in its four games last week, drawing 27 walks against Nevada and UC Riverside
• Junior Luis Pimentel-Guerrero led the way with eight of those free passes, while Smith added five more — including two of the intentional variety
• In all, seven different hitters accounted for multiple walks on the week
• Sophomore closer Kade Brown kept adding on to his career-high save total with his 12th and 13th saves of the year in the final two games of the series against UC Riverside
• Brown hasn't allowed a run in his last 12.2 innings, posting a 1-0 record with six saves in his last seven appearances, scattering just four hits and striking out 14 against three walks
• The 13 saves are now second on the school's single-season list, trailing only Sutter McLoughlin, who set the record with 17 as a freshman in 2013
• Brown's 21 career saves are fourth on the all-time list, trailing Mike Frame (1987-89) and Jack Zalasky (2019-23) by five for second place
• All three of the Hornets' weekend starters posted wins last week with senior Evan Gibbons, junior Ethan Lay, and junior Carson Latimer doing the honors
• Gibbons improved to 7-1 overall on the year — the most wins by a Sacramento State pitcher since Brady Rodriguez (8-2), Scott Randall (7-2), and Jack Zalasky (7-2) accomplished the feat in 2021
• One more win would move Gibbons into a tie for 10th on the school's all-time list with 19, matching Sam Long (2014-16) and Rocco Buffolino (1986-87)
• Lay put up a Pitcher of the Week type performance in winning his fourth of the year with a masterful outing against the Highlanders in game two, allowing a run on four hits while striking out nine over eight scoreless innings
• The nine strikeouts were Lay's second-highest total of the year behind only his 11 strikeouts against Pacific on March 9
NCAA STATISTICAL NOTABLES
• Thanks to six double plays turned last week, the Hornets rank No. 26 in the NCAA in double plays turned with 37
• The three double plays in the series finale against UC Riverside tied the team's season high set against Fresno State on March 25
• Sacramento State ranks No. 45 in the nation in ERA (4.64), which also leads the WAC
• The Hornets' four shutouts this year are No. 19 in the NCAA
• Sacramento State's pitching staff enters the week ranked No. 6 in the nation in walks allowed per nine innings (3.15), No. 34 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.53), No. 47 in WHIP (1.39)
• Junior JP Smith is No. 30 in the nation with his 17 doubles
• Senior right-hander Andrew Monson is No. 29 in the NCAA in appearances with 21
• Freshman Michael Perazzo is No. 3 in the nation in sacrifice hits (13) and No. 5 in sacrifices per game (0.30)
• Sophomore right-hander Kade Brown is tied for No. 2 in the NCAA in saves (13)
• Junior right-hander Ethan Lay is No. 79 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.08), No. 81 in WHIP (1.12), and No. 65 in walks allowed per nine innings (1.95)
• Senior outfielder Tyler White ranks No. 35 in the nation with four triples
