SUNNYVALE — On a cool March evening last year, high school teammates Amy Tompkins and Teri Ann Caoagan sat in the bleachers, watching their future team play in the National Invitational Softball tournament.

Both were wide-eyed Notre Dame (Salinas) High seniors, sitting in their navy blue game uniforms, watching teams at the next level compete between games of their own at the Circle of Champions — a high school tournament held at the same complex as the National Invitational.

“I remember sitting and watching Sac State last year thinking, ‘That’s my team!'” Tompkins said.

As the sun set on Sunnyvale that brisk March evening, Tompkins knew that she would be at Sac State in a year; Caoagan at that point was still unsure of her softball future, but over the summer received an offer from coach Kathy Strahan to walk on to the Hornets.

“It was fun watching them play, to see what you wanted to be,” Caoagan said. “You see that those girls are just like you.”

According to Tompkins, she and Caoagan had to leave the Sac State game early to warm up for a Notre Dame contest, only to learn that the Hornets lost their game against then-20th-ranked Arizona State in the next inning.

“I felt bad for leaving,” Tompkins said. “I thought I was their good luck charm.”

Tompkins and Caoagan were both good luck charms for high school coach Joe Given throughout their years at Notre Dame, leading the team to three consecutive Central Coast Section championships from 2002-04.

“They anchored the left side of the infield for us for three years,” Given said Friday night as he watched his former players in action. “Those two and my own daughter (who also played for the Spirits) were inseparable.

“They’re almost like daughters to me … I’m proud of them.”

Tompkins has started all but one game at shortstop for Sac State (13-11) this season — a 7-2 victory Sunday afternoon over UC Davis in its final game of the tournament — while Caoagan currently leads the Hornets in RBIs with 11 and is hitting .450 with runners in scoring position.

“If I were another coach and I saw that statistic, I’d walk her every time (in that situation),” Strahan quipped.

The Notre Dame duo is just two of five young Central Coast products making an impact on a Sac State team packed with veterans.

Tompkins and Caoagan, along with Ashley Dawson, Hilary Johnson and Jennifer Fryou, make up the fivesome. All either played in the Circle of Champions while in high school — in addition to competing in the Monterey Bay League — or had their former teams on hand last weekend to cheer them on.

Notre Dame seniors, shortstop Melissa Pura (Cal Poly), pitcher Kim Reeder (Ohio State) and first baseman Jessica Whitaker (Binghamton), have all signed National Letters of Intent and took time Friday evening to watch two former teammates that were on the diamond with them a year ago.

“It was nice to see them at that level of play,” Reeder said.

“They’ve both made steps up in their game,” Pura added.

Dawson and Johnson are another pair of former high school teammates sporting Hornets green and gold. The duo literally splits time as Sac State’s starting right fielders — out of 24 games, each has started 12.

“I just root and pray for her to do well,” Dawson said of Johnson. “I know she does the same for me … we’ve been playing together since high school.”

Both Dawson and Johnson graduated from Monterey High in 2003; Dawson came straight to Sac State and walked on while Johnson spent the 2003-04 academic year at Monterey Peninsula College before joining the Hornets.

Completing the Central Coast-Sacramento pipeline is sophomore pitcher Jennifer Fryou — the quintet’s most senior member despite just entering her sophomore year of eligibility.

“I was so excited when I saw everyone again,” Fryou said. “There’s a lot of good talent in our area.”

Fryou, the 1999 Circle of Champions most valuable player, graduated from North Monterey County High in Castroville in 2002. Fryou spent her first year out of high school attending classes at Cabrillo College in Aptos but did not play softball for the school, thus saving a year of eligibility.

In addition to their similar geographic and high school roots, Tompkins, Caoagan, Dawson, Johnson and Fryou were all on the same traveling team, the Salinas Wildcatz, in the summer of 2003.

“All of us play well together because we have that bond,” Fryou said.

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John Parker can be reached at [email protected]