The Hornets and Wolf Pack will meet this weekend for a four-game series at Peccole Park in Reno.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Sacramento State baseball team will visit Reno, Nev., this weekend for a four-game Western Athletic Conference series at Nevada that has many WAC Tournament implications.
The series begins on Friday with a 6 p.m. first pitch. A doubleheader will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday and the series concludes at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Hornets (4-12 WAC) currently seventh in the league and the top six teams gain entry into the WAC Tournament. The Wolf Pack (6-9 WAC) are sixth in the standings while New Mexico State (7-9 WAC) is fifth.
The Hornets split with the Aggies last weekend and NMSU must now visit No. 23 ranked and second place Fresno State this weekend before hosting first-place Hawai'i.
A series win (3-of-4) will tie the Hornets with Nevada in the win column heading into the final weekend of the regular season. The Hornets end the year by hosting Louisiana Tech while the Wolf Pack have to play at third-place San Jose State.
Sacramento State will use Karl Maas (RHP, 3-4, 4.77 ERA) on Friday, Brandon Sandoval (RHP, 3-2, 3.27) on Saturday and Tanner Mendonca (RHP, 2-4, 5.18) on Sunday. The Hornets' second starter on Saturday is TBA.
Nevada will counter with Troy Marks (RHP, 203, 3.88 ERA) on Friday plus Brock Stassi (LHP, 1-2, 7.43) and Tom Jameson (RHP, 3-6, 5.89) on Saturday. The Wolf Pack's Sunday starter is TBA.
For a full set of game notes, click on the PDF link above.
SACRAMENTO STATE BREAKDOWN
Recently: The Hornets went 2-and-2 at New Mexico State, scoring 50 runs on 67 hits.
All-Time Series: The Hornets are 16-46 all-time versus Nevada in the Div. I era (1990+).
Notable: The Hornets are playing for their WAC Tournament lives this weekend at Nevada. A series win would tie the two teams for sixth.
NEVADA BREAKDOWN
Recently: Nevada went 1-for-3 at home against WAC-leader Hawai’i.
Notable: Brock Stassi leads the Wolf Pack at the plate, hitting .373 with 18 doubles and 26 RBIs. On the mound, head coach Gary Powers‘ squad has a team 5.44 ERA. Tom Jameson has made a team-high 12 starts and sports a 5.89 ERA.
AROUND THE WAC
Last weekend Sacramento State split a four-game set at New Mexico State. Hawai’i took 3-of-4 at Nevada while Louisiana Tech and Fresno State split. Hawai’i won its three games in the series by a combined eight runs. Will Soto earned WAC Hitter of the Week while Nevada’s Troy Marks took Pitcher of the Week honors. Marks, a junior from Fresno, Calif., tossed a complete game seven-inning shutout as Nevada defeated Hawai’i 10-0 on May 6.
OFFENSE EXPLODES AT NMSU
The Sacramento State offense tallied some ridiculous numbers in its four-game series at New Mexico State. The Hornets scored 50 runs on 67 hits with 10 doubles, two triples and five home runs. The team hit a combined .411 with a .589 slugging percentage.
SETTING NEW SEASON-HIGH HIT MARK
The Hornets set a new season-high for hits in three consecutive games at New Mexico. They tallied 17 hits in game 2, 18 in game 3 and 19 in game 4.
SOTO GOES OFF
Will Soto, a freshman from Elk Grove, Calif. (Elk Grove HS), hit .706 (12-for-17) with seven runs scored, eight RBI, two doubles and three walks without a strikeout as Sacramento State split its series at New Mexico State. Soto had 10 singles and two doubles in four games, including a Sacramento State season-high five hits on Saturday. He became just the 11th player in school history to tally five hits in a single game, good for No. 2 all-time on the single-game hits list at Sacramento State. Prior to the NMSU series, Soto was hitting .158 (12-for-76) on the year before exploding against the Aggies and doubling his season hit total. He improved his batting average to .258 (24-for-93) after the weekend.
SOTO EARNS WAC HITTER OF THE WEEK
After hitting .706 over the weekend in a four-game series at New Mexico State, freshman Will Soto earned Verizon WAC Hitter of the Week honors.
ONE TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND
While Will Soto gained the headlines from last weekend’s series at New Mexico State, Brent Hottman was nearly as good. The junior catcher/DH went 6-for-9 in two games with two RBIs and four runs.
PLAYING CLOSE GAMES
The Hornets have lost 22 games this season by two runs or less, including eight of their first nine.
SANDOVAL’S TRANSITION TO STARTER
Senior RHP Brandon Sandoval made the move to starter from the bullpen prior to conference play and has been very successful. He sports a 2-1 record in four starts with a 3.28 ERA in 24.2 innings pitched.
SUCCESS IN DOUBLEHEADERS
Sacramento State has posted an 8-3 record in the opening games of doubleheaders. The Hornets are 3-1 in the openers of WAC doubleheaders and won their most recent, 15-8 over New Mexico State. Brandon Sandoval has been the starting pitcher in all four of the WAC seven inning games to start doubleheaders. The Hornets also defeated then-No. 12 Fresno State in the opening game of their doubleheader.
WAC GAMES STAT LEADERS
In Sacramento State’s 16 conference games this season, David Del Grande leads the team with a .359 batting average while Will Soto is behind him with a .353 average. Young leads the team with 12 RBIs while Blake Miller is 5-for-6 on stolen base attempts. Derrick Chung has a team-best 16 runs and six doubles in league play.
HORNETS AGAINST NEVADA PITCHERS
Last year Sacramento State faced two of Nevada’s projected starters this weekend. None of the current Hornets were able to get a hit against Brock Stassi, who did not allow a run and just three hits in 22 at-bats. Blake Miller went 2-for-3 against Jeremy Cole while Jake Chilton went 1-for-1 with an RBI.
