This wasn’t a playoff game, but it sure felt like one. Led by another complete game effort from pitcher Ethan Katz, the underdog Hornets surprised No. 2 ranked Stanford on Saturday with a 2-1 nail biting win in front of Hornet Field’s largest crowd of the season.

The Cardinal was the highest ranked team that the Hornets have beaten in the program’s history.

The often vocal and sun-drenched crowd rose to its feet to give Katz a lift for the game’s final at-bat. With the Hornets holding on to a 2-1 lead in the ninth, with two outs and a runner on second, Stanford shortstop Chris Minaker battled Katz to a full count. But Minaker was caught looking at strike three to end the game, sending the Hornet dugout onto the field in celebration.

The stat line for Katz: nine innings, four hits allowed, and seven strikeouts. It was his fourth complete game of the season.

“Matt Wilson caught an unbelievable game today,” Hornet manager John Smith said of his catcher afterwards. “And Katz had everything working well. He executed every pitch Matt asked him to throw.”

Katz kept his composure to find his way out of several tough situations in nine innings. Several times he would step off the mound to collect his thoughts and settle himself down against a Stanford lineup that entered the game with a 22-1 record against right-handed pitchers.

Credit Hornet right fielder Craig Johnson with an assist to Katz’s win. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Johnson singled to right field, scoring Ronnie Machado, Jr. from second and giving the Hornets a 2-1 lead that they would not surrender.

The hit broke the tie and was also the first hit of the day for Sac State, which ended Stanford starter Jeff Gilmore’s no-hitter attempt.

The win snapped a season high five-game losing streak. For Stanford, the loss halted their seven-game win streak. The Cardinal is now 31-6, while the Hornets are now 23-27. Katz is now 7-4 on the season, while Gilmore dropped just his second decision. He is now 6-2.

“We just came out today and said ‘who cares,'” Hornet third baseman John Acha said of the team’s current attitude. “We know the playoffs aren’t going to happen for us, and after what happened yesterday, we just came out and played for pride.”

What happened on Friday was the Hornets worst loss of the season, a 15-1 drubbing at Stanford to open the short two-game series.

The Cardinal used an early barrage of nine runs on 14 hits in the first four innings to take an insurmountable lead.

Marshall Hendon, who started the game for the Hornets, is now 1-4 with the loss after allowing five runs in two innings. Stanford starter Mark Romanczak improved to 8-1 while striking out seven Hornets in eight innings.