SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Rich Daly’s solo home run in the ninth inning ended a 4-4 tie and led San Francisco State to a 5-4 win over the Sacramento State baseball team, Sunday afternoon at Hornet Field. The loss ended a season-high three-game winning streak for the Hornets.Sacramento State is now 14-12 on the year while San Francisco State improved to 13-12.
The Gators took a 3-0 lead in the first after a two-run single to right field by Kris Gibson and an RBI single to left by J.R. Bierly. SFSU added another run in the fourth when Gibson hit a solo home run to center field.
Sacramento State cut the deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the fourth after a sacrifice fly, and two RBI singles. With one out junior Andy Hnilo was hit by a pitch before junior Bret LeVier followed with a double to left field. In the next at-bat, Wilson drove in Hnilo from third with a drive to left field. Junior Pedro Santiago followed with an RBI single to left and then advanced to second on the throw to the plate. After sophomore Jim Strombach walked, Arroyo drove in Santiago from second with a single to center.
The Hornets tied the game 4-4 in the eighth when LeVier drove in senior John Acha from second with a single to center field.
San Francisco State took the lead for good in the ninth when Daly led off the inning with a homer over the left-field wall.
Keith Albright (3-1) earned the win allowing no runs, no hits and issuing only two walks in 1.2 relief innings.
Freshman Billy Sinacori (1-3) was tagged with the loss after allowing one run on one hit while striking out one batter in 1.2 innings. Freshman Justin Demé allowed one run on four hits w hile striking out one batter in 5.0 innings of relief.
Arroyo led the Hornet offense by finishing 3-for-5 from the plate and now leads the Hornets with 41 hits and a .373 batting average. LeVier also finished with three hits (3-for-4) while Santiago recorded his second-consecutive multiple-hit game (2-for-4).
Sacramento State will next host Cal Poly for a two-game series this weekend at Hornet Field. The first game will be on Saturday, Mar. 20, at 1 p.m. before the series finale on Sunday, Mar. 21, at 10 a.m. The Hornets will then host UC Riverside immediately after the game to begin a two-game set with the Highlanders. The final game of the series will be on Monday, Mar. 22, at 1 p.m.
