With just five weeks left in the season, the Sacramento State baseball team will play its busiest week of the year as the Hornets will take to the diamond five times in a six-day span. Sacramento State, which enters the week with a 15-22 overall record and an 0-12 mark in Big West Conference games, will begin the week by hosting Santa Clara on Tuesday, April 23 at 2:30 p.m. The team will then travel to Stanford the following day to take on the Cardinal at 6 p.m. The final three games of the week will come against Cal Poly. The first of the three-game league series will be played at Raley Field while the final two will come at Hornet Field. Friday’s game at Raley Field will start at 7 p.m. while Saturday and Sunday’s contests will begin at 1 p.m.

Santa Clara enters the week with a 17-24 overall record. The Broncos posted a 7-5 come-from-behind victory over the Hornets on Mar. 5 at Buck Shaw Stadium.

Despite dropping two of three games at Washington over the weekend, Stanford is still ranked fourth in the nation with a 27-10 record. Wednesday’s game was originally scheduled for May 21 but was forced to move due to the fact that it conflicted with Sacramento State’s final exams.

Cal Poly currently has a 21-23-1 overall record and is 6-6 in the Big West. The Hornets and Mustangs split a pair of nonleague games earlier this season in San Luis Obispo. The third game of the series was rained out.

• Meet the Coach

Since taking over the program in November of 1978, Sacramento State graduate John Smith has only eight losing seasons. In his 24 seasons as a head coach, he has posted 689 wins, ranking him among the top-60 active Division I coaches.

In his tenure with the Hornets, Smith has led the team to four NCAA postseason appearances, winning two regional crowns and two trips to the NCAA Div. II Championship.

Smith was named American Baseball Coaches Association/NCAA Western Regional Coach of the Year twice, in 1986 and 1988.

In 1999, Smith added the title of Associate Athletic Director to his resume. In his current capacity he oversees the school’s football program as well as all facility improvements.

• A Look at Last Week

Sacramento State was able to snap its three-game losing streak with a 13-8 win over Hawai’i-Hilo on Tuesday. The Hornets then procceeded to lose all three Big West games at Cal State Northridge over the weekend including the final two games in the Matadors’ final at-bat.

Friday, Bobby Ciani recorded a career-high four hits and Mario Celillo added three, including a home run, to lead the Hornets. The team received a strong effort from Steve Cuckovich, Marshall Plouffe and Jeff Groeger in the win.

Helping Sacramento State’s cause was a solid start which saw the team score nine runs over the first two innings. After Hilo pulled within two in the seventh, 10-8, the Hornets scored the game’s final three runs to pull away.

Friday, Cal State Northridge scored nine runs in the seventh inning en route to an 18-7 victory. Tim Reimer and Celillo were the only two Hornets to pick up multiple hits in the game. Sacramento State was plagued by poor defense in the game which resulted in four errors and eight unearned runs.

Saturday, Shaun Larkin hit a two-run home run with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning to give CSN a 6-4 win. The Hornets, led 4-3 entering the inning but Jason Gorman doubled to right-center to tie the game before Larking homered to center.

The loss spoilled a strong effort from starter Jeff Groeger. The senior tossed his second complete game over his last three starts and struck out six.

Senior Casey Fuller tallied two hits including a home run to lead the offense. Chirs Kinsey also added his team and Big West-leading 14th home run.

Sunday, the Matadors again rallied in their final at-bat scoring five runs in the eighth inning for a 12-7 win. Sacramento State recorded 14 hits in the game including three each from freshman Pedro Santiago and junior Danny Gill.

A Look at the Hornets

• Medic Alert

Part of Sacramento State’s midseason skid has been a rash of injuries. The biggest came on April 10 when the team lost starting pitcher Kevin Marzion. While the Hornets were defeating the Aggies at Raley Field, Marzion was having his appendix removed. The senior, who leads the team with a 4.42 ERA, will likely miss the remainder of the season leaving the team with just five pitchers that have tossed at least 15 innings.

Also falling victim to injury over the past couple of weeks have been Tito Barba (hamstring), Tim Reimer, (hamstring), Joe Evans (back), Chris Kinsey (food poisoning), Mario Celillo (shoulder) and Casey Fuller (quad).

• Gill the Thrill

It has taken Danny Gill nearly one-and-a-half years to adapt to Div. I baseball but the junior has seemed to finally have the touch. Gill, who was forced to miss all of last season following hand surgery, opened the season with just one hit in his first 14 at-bats and was 4-for-31 (.129) after the Stony Brook series.

The Sacramento native is now hitting .260 after recording 15 hits in his last 42 at-bats. Helping his average has been a strong showing against Big West teams. Gill leads the team with a .412 average in the 12 league games. In fact, he is the only player on the team hitting over .300 in conference games.

• Closing the Deal

One major difference between last season and this one is the fact that the team does not have an established closer. The Hornets have recorded just one save (Dusty Decker) this season compared to the 10 tallied by last year’s squad.

The Hornets have also watched the opponents pull away late in numerous games. This season, the opposition has outscored Sacramento State, 110-60, over the final three innings.

• News and Notes

After throwing out two runners over the weekend, Mario Celillo now has seven assists from RF this year...Kinsey, Ciani and Rincon are the only players to have four or more hits in a game this year.

---30---