Teams: UC Davis vs. Sacramento State
Records: Aggies, 4-4; Hornets, 3-3
Where: Hornet Field – Sacramento, Calif.; Dobbins Stadium
When: Friday at 2:30 p.m.; Saturday at 1 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m.
Who to watch: Third baseman Paul Politi is turning heads in his first season on the field.
The redshirt-freshman from Los Gatos, Calif. places second on the team with a .478 slugging percentage. His .414 on base percentage ranks third while his .303 batting average is fifth.
Did you know? Yesterday’s game against No. 24 Stanford has been rescheduled for today at Dobbins Stadium. Barring further rain, first pitch will occur at 2 p.m.
Preview: The Aggies are required to play four games against two rivals each of the next four days.
The kicker?
No games will be played at the same location on consecutive days.
After facing Stanford at home today, UC Davis will travel to play Sac State tomorrow, come home to play the Hornets at Dobbins Stadium on Saturday and then go back to Sacramento on Sunday to complete the series.
The Aggies remain unfazed.
“It’s not a big deal to us,” said coach Rex Peters. “We’re only 20 minutes apart so it makes sense to split it up.”
Being so close to each other, UC Davis and Sac State get to keep a pretty close eye on how things are going across The Causeway. Due to this fact, the Aggies believe they know the strengths of the Hornet squad.
“They’re traditionally a good offensive team,” Peters said, “so they’re going to swing the bat and score some runs.”
Combined with Sac State’s offensive prowess, UC Davis believes that the weakness of the Hornets will lead to a lot of scoring.
“They haven’t been as quite as good as they need to be on the mound,” Peters said. “Because of that, I think it’s going to be an offensive series in a lot of ways.”
The only potential roadblock to high offensive output for the Aggies is the weather.
Having games postponed, suspended and cancelled has prevented UC Davis from getting into a groove at the plate.
“This time of year is always sketchy weather-wise,” Peters said. “I think we’ll swing the bats a little better as the season goes on and we find a lineup that works for us.”
Despite the many challenges, the Aggies never need help motivating themselves when they play the Hornets.
“Anytime you play Sac State here at Davis you want to win,” Peters said. “They’re all baseball games but it does mean a little bit more when you beat them.”
– Mark Ling
