Box Score

DAVIS, Calif. -- Junior right-hander Justin Mullins allowed just one earned run and struck out five over six innings of work, while Tanner Bily and Cameron Olson each slugged home runs on the day, helping lift host UC Davis to an 8-2 victory over Causeway rival Sacramento State on Tuesday afternoon at Dobbins Stadium.

The Aggies won their fourth straight contest to improve to 13-25 overall on the season, collecting 11 hits -- including a career-best 3-for-4 day for freshman Caleb Van Blake, who fell a home run shy of the cycle while driving in two runs, matching his season hit total with his performance on Tuesday.

UC Davis, which collected double-digit hits for the fourth straight game and the sixth time in its last eight, ended a two-game skid to the Hornets with the win, defending its home diamond and posting its first win over Sacramento State at Dobbins Stadium since 2011, ending a five-game losing streak.

Led by two hits apiece from Bronson Grubbs and Trent Goodrich at the top of the order, the Hornets fell to 25-19 on the year.

Mullins (1-4) was perfect through three until Grubbs led off the fourth with an infield single, and allowd just three hits through five, stranding all three runners on base. The junior finished six innings and scattered seven hits en route to his first win of the year.

Meanwhile, the Aggies' bats continued to build off the momentum of their three-game sweep of Pacific last weekend, as senior Spencer Henderson knocked a one-out single in the second, stole second base, and scored when Alex Roeser's ground ball to the right side was misplayed, for the 1-0 lead.

UC Davis tacked on four more in the second to essentially put the game out of reach early, sending nine batters to the plate in the frame. Alex Aguiar drove home the first run with an RBI single following a Brad Pluschkell single and a walk to Bily to make it 2-0, and freshman Logan Denholm laced a double to left after a double play to plate Bily from third to make it 3-0.

Following a walk that chased starter Tanner Olson (3-4) from the game, Roeser was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Van Blake, who got enough of an 0-2 offering from Austin Root and punched it back up the middle to score a pair for a 5-0 lead.

Bily's first home run of the season tacked on two more in the fourth as he followed a single by Pluschkell with a first-pitch rocket that cleared the wall in left field to make it 7-0, as the Aggies looked to cruise to the finish.

Sacramento State threatened to put together a big inning in the sixth, cashing in a pair of runs after three straight singles loaded the bases. A one-out fly ball to right by Josh Egan scored Grubbs to break up the shutout, and a throwing error on an infield single off the bat of Brandon Hunley let a second run come home, but Mullins worked out of the jam, getting James Outman to strikeout swinging to end the inning.

After a pair of fly balls in the home half of the sixth, Olson clubbed his third home run of the season, easily clearing the wall in right field to get one of the runs back and cap the scoring for an 8-2 Aggie lead.

Sophomores Matt Blais and Blake Peters then closed out the game, combining to allow just one hit (a single by Goodrich to lead-off the eighth) over the final three innings, striking out one batter apiece.

Bily, who finished 2-for-4 with a pair of runs and two RBI, extended his team-best hitting streak to 10 straight games with his fourth-inning home run, reaching base safely for the 13th consecutive contest. Olson's home run also extended his own streak of reaching base safely to 11 straight games.

The Aggies close out their homestand with a three-game series this weekend against No. 13 UC Santa Barbara, beginning Friday (May 6) at 2:30 p.m. Games two and three on Saturday (May 7) and Sunday (May 8) will begin at 1 p.m. each day.

UC Davis 8, Sacramento State 2 (May 03, 2016 at Davis, Calif.)
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Sacramento State.... 000 002 000 - 2 8 1 (25-19)
UC Davis............ 014 201 00X - 8 11 1 (13-25)
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Pitchers: Sacramento State - Olson, Tanner; Root, Austin(3); Long, Sam(4); Palsha, Jonny(5); Perry, Chad(7); Beardsley, Tyler(8) and Egan, Josh. UC Davis - Mullins, Justin; Blais, Matt (7); Peters, Blake (9) and Denholm, Logan.
Win - Mullins, Justin (1-4) Loss - Olson, Tanner (3-4) T-2:20 A-131
HR UCD - Bily, Tanner (1); Olson, Cameron (3).