Sunnyvale — Third basemen know best.

After dropping two extra inning games on the first day of the 18th Annual National Invitational Softball Tournament in Sunnyvale, which saw Sacramento State softball strikeout a combined 16 times and strand 24 base runners, Hornet third baseman Amy Hillel put things in perspective.

“There are just some little things we need to work on offensively and as soon as those things get fixed we’ll just explode and no team is going to be able to stop us, I truly believe that.” Hillel said.

“We all just need to stay positive and know that we can hit the crap out of the ball, because we can, we all just need to get it together.”

She was right.

Over the next two days, Sac State erupted offensively and combined for 27 hits and 13 runs in the next three games to close out their weekend with a 3-2 tournament record.

Friday night overtime

Sac State (11-11) dropped each of the first two games of the NIST in extra innings to Arizona State and Minnesota, 2-1 and 4-3, respectively.

The Hornets two losses Friday night were especially gut-wrenching for the throng of frigid Hornet faithful who stuck around through 20 innings of softball spanning five and a half hours.

As twilight gave way to darkness, Sac State’s run production suddenly faded to black, as well.

The Hornets had numerous opportunities to take the lead in extra innings of both games only to fall victim to strikeouts or untimely ground balls. In all, they stranded five runners in extra innings alone versus ASU and seven, including a Joanna O’Neill strikeout with the bases loaded to end the game, against Minnesota.

“Those games could have gone either way,” head coach Kathy Strahan said. “We just could not catch a break offensively.”

Hit Parade

The chant from teammates in the dugout goes: “You get on, I get on Amber, You get on, I get on Amber. You get on, I get on, run the bases all day long, Amber hit the ball. Yee Haw!”

Hornet senior outfielder Amber Dragomir led the Hornet hit parade over the final two days of the NIST, combining for seven hits in nine at-bats and four RBIs in their final three games and now leads the team in batting average, hitting .324 on the year.

“Being a senior you’re more relaxed and more used to what’s going on, so you can relax and just go out and play,” Dragomir said.

Dragomir reached in all three of her at-bats in a 3-0 Saturday morning victory against Virginia, a game that saw second baseman Jess Rojo hit her first career home run.

“I happened to look up as I passed first and saw it go out,” Rojo said. “I can’t even describe the feeling. It felt so good, it shocked me.”

After making batting practice fodder out of Virginia, the Hornets jumped on conference foe Santa Clara for three runs in the first two innings Saturday afternoon and subdued several late Bronco rallies to pick up the win 3-1.

Sac State closed out the NIST with a convincing comeback against host San Jose State on Sunday morning, scoring seven unanswered runs after trailing 2-0 in the first inning to pick up the win 7-2. With the win, the Hornets improved their record to .500 for the first time this year.

Complete Mastery Nicole Deatherage was brilliant all weekend, pitching seven innings of two-hit softball against Virginia coming off the heartbreaking extra inning loss to ASU less than a day earlier in which she threw nine innings without allowing an earned run.

Deatherage also picked up a win in relief, replacing starter Jennifer Fryou against San Jose State and allowing no runs and four hits in six and two thirds innings. Deatherage has now gone 36.0 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run, while allowing just 16 hits over that span. Her ERA now stands at 0.92.

“Nicole has been throwing really well since she made a few adjustments in her mechanics,” Strahan said.

Strahan was not alone in the praise of her ace starter.

“(Deatherage) threw such a good game against us,” ASU head coach Linda Wells said. “In particular, she located and changed speeds well. She kept us off balance all night.”

Origins of the NIST

In her second year of seven as head coach at San Jose State, Strahan founded the NIST in hopes of establishing a prestigious tournament on the west coast.

“I wanted to put together an invitational on the west coast the first chance I got because the weather is so good and you can get some quality competition,” Strahan said. “This is some of the best competition we get all year.”