Jake Chilton hit his first home run of the season but the Hornets lost, 7-5.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Sacramento State baseball team held a one-run lead heading into the top of the ninth inning but Minnesota was able to force extras and the Hornets lost, 7-5, in 11 innings on Thursday afternoon at John Smith Field.
The Hornets fall to 4-14 on the season while Minnesota evened up its record at 7-7.
Reliever Andrew Galvan (0-4) took the loss for the Hornets while reliever Scott Matyas (1-0) earned the win for the Golden Golphers.
Jake Chilton hit his first home run of the season while pinch hitting in the seven the inning but it was Blake Miller, who had two RBIs and two hits, who paced the Hornets offensively. David Del Grande also had a pair of hits and scored twice.
AJ Pettersen drove both of the Golden Golphers' runs in the 11th inning while Matt Puhl also had a pair of RBIs. JT Canakes, Matt Halloran and Kyle Geason all had two hits.
The game started off well for the Hornets as they scored three runs in the first inning.
After a leadoff groundout, Del Grande smashed a double to left center. In the next at-bat Hunter Adrian was hit by a pitch, the first of a single-game school-record tying three times he was hit by a pitch. Derrick Chung followed with a single through the right side. The first run came home on Kirby Young's sacrifice fly and two more came around when Miller singled to left to score both Chung and Adrian.
The Hornets would not score again until the seventh, when Chilton hit a 1-0 pitch over the right field fence for his first jack of the year and the Hornets' sixth home run as a team. They tacked on another run when Chung hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Del Grande.
It started to come apart for the Hornets in the bottom of the eighth when Minnesota scored two runs on three hits. That set the Golden Golphers up for a chance to tie in the ninth, and they did just that when Halloran singled to center to bring home Troy Larson from second.
In the 11th, with the bases loaded, Minnesota's Petterson singled up the middle to score the eventual game-winning runs. The Hornets went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 11th inning.
Sacramento State had a quick turnaround with a doubleheader starting at noon on Friday at Cal State Northridge. The Hornets and Matadors play the final game of the three-game set on Saturday at noon.
Minnesota 7, Sacramento State 5 (Mar 17, 2011 at Sacramento, Calif.)
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Minnesota........... 000 010 121 02 - 7 10 0 (7-7)
Sacramento State.... 300 000 200 00 - 5 9 1 (4-14)
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Pitchers: Minnesota - O'Shea, Kyle; Snelten, DJ(3); Klabunde, Dustin(7); Sexton, Cullen(7);
Rasmussen, Luke(8); Matyas, Scott(9). Sacramento State - Lukes, Shea; Greenwood, Hunter(5);
Sandoval, Brandon(8); Galvan, Andrew(11).
Win-Matyas, Scott(1-0) Loss-Galvan, Andrew(0-4) T-3:08 A-108
HR MIN - Bettenburg, David.
HR SAC - Chilton, Jake.
Weather: 58 degrees, sunny
K. O'Shea faced 2 batters in the 3rd.
