SACRAMENTO STATE HORNETS
It's All Good!

The Sacramento State baseball team will take the field in 2010 for what will be a historic season. Head coach John Smith has announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season, his 32nd at the helm of the program.

Senior Josh Powers started all 54 games and hit .358 in 2009. Photo courtesy Sacramento State.

"I've always felt that in coaching, I knew there would be a moment when it would feel right to retire," Smith said. "At this stage in the program, we have a team full of hungry, hard-working student-athletes, which is something I always strived for. I feel I can walk away now knowing that the program is going in the right direction."

In his 31 years as head coach at Sacramento State, Smith has compiled 861 victories in the Green and Gold. Since taking over the program in November of 1978, Smith has produced 16 winning seasons, including 11 years with at least 30 wins and four years with at least 40 victories.

The 2010 team will see 17 newcomers, including eight pitchers, make their Division I debut for the Hornets. Two additional newcomers are no strangers to Division I baseball. Junior Trevor Bloom returns to the WAC after spending a year at College of the Canyons. Bloom appeared in 17 games, making eight starts, as a freshman at New Mexico State. Senior Robert Butler joins the club after transferring from South Dakota State. Butler pitched one season there in 2008 under Hornets associate head coach Reggie Christiansen, who was the South Dakota head coach from 2005 to 2008.

Sacramento State returns 13 lettermen from a team that won 27 games a season ago. The Hornets welcome back four starters (infielders Josh Powers and Derrick Chung, catcher Brent Hottman, DH Justin Lamb) and three starting pitchers (right-handers Brandon Sandoval and Jesse Darrah, and lefty Tommy Elrod).

Darrah was the lone Hornet to earn preseason all-Western Athletic Conference honors. He posted a 9-2 record with a 5.64 ERA during his first season in the Green and Gold, becoming the team's first freshman All-American during the Division I era (1990-present). Darrah became the first Hornet with nine wins since Ethan Katz, who accomplished the feat in 2005. He is also the first Hornet freshman to collect at least eight victories during the team's Division I era.

Powers, who will make the move from third base to first base in 2010, hit .358 with three homers and 44 RBI as a junior last season. He finished sixth in the NCAA in doubles with 26, the second-most in single-season school history. Powers also led the team with seven sacrifice flies, which ranked 28th in the nation.

The Hornets will look to replace 14 lettermen from a season ago, including centerfielder Tim Wheeler, who was the first Hornet ever to be drafted in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft when the Colorado Rockies selected him. Wheeler became the school's first two-time first-team all-Western Athletic Conference selection, hitting .385 on the season with 18 home runs and 72 runs batted in, setting the school's single-season RBI record in the process. First baseman Blake Crosby, a 42nd-round pick of the Oakland A's, will also be a key bat the Hornets need to find a replacement for. Crosby led the team with a .397 batting average as a senior, which ranks as the ninth-best average in single-season program history.

Visit hornetsports.comfor the latest news on Hornets baseball.