The UC Davis baseball team played against the Sacramento State Hornets on May 13 at Raley Field in Sacramento, Calif. The Aggies were down by three runs after the first inning, but they soon bounced back and took charge of the game, which ended in a 6-3 victory for UC Davis.
Sacramento State had won the last eight consecutive meetings with UC Davis before the May 13 matchup, including a 15-7 victory in Davis, Calif. on April 15. The Hornets looked for another win that would have made their winning streak against UC Davis the longest winning streak in school history, so they started off the game strong and put three runs on the board in the first inning.
Sacramento State’s Nathan Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly by his teammate David Del Grande to give the Hornets a 1-0 lead. Kyle Moses scored on a throwing error by the Aggies’ left fielder and was followed by a run from Rhys Hoskins, who scored after Will Soto roped a double. The Hornets scored three runs with only one out and looked in prime position to score more runs.
However, that’s all the Hornets managed to score, due to the strong pitching performances by the Aggies to close out the game. UC Davis’ bats began to heat up and the team started a rally. Senior Adam Young started the second inning with a leadoff single and later scored on junior Nick Lynch’s groundout. This was followed by senior Spencer Brann, who hit his first home run of the season to right field, bringing the Aggies back to within a run at the end of the second inning.
Both teams did not score in the third inning and UC Davis jumped ahead in the fourth inning, loading the bases with nobody out. Senior Steven Patterson scored on a sacrifice fly by Lynch and tied the game at 3-3. Brann then doubled which brought junior Kevin Barker to third and scored Young. The third run of the inning came on a passed ball by Sac State as UC Davis went ahead, 5-3.
After quiet fifth and sixth innings, the Aggies added their final run of the game in the seventh inning to secure the victory. Senior Seth Batty scored on sophomore Tanner Bily’s fly ball to center, bringing the score to 6-3.
With this victory, the Aggies improve to a 21-27 record on the season.
“We’ve been banged up, we got three guys back in the lineup tonight and we showed what we’re capable of, we’re capable of playing this kind of baseball,” said head coach Matt Vaughn.
UC Davis closed out its eight-game road trip and will return home to play the final six games of the regular season. The Aggies will first host Hawai’i in a three-game series from May 16 to May 18.
JANET ZENG can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
