Brianne Ferguson remembers locking herself in hotel bathrooms and crying for hours.

She remembers the post-game tirades and then contemplating quitting softball altogether.

Three years ago Ferguson transferred to Sacramento State looking to escape San Jose State coach Dee Dee Enabenter-Omidiji and her confrontational approach to disciplining her team.

After being told by Enabenter-Omidiji that she would never make it in Division I softball, Ferguson yearned for a place where she could rebuild her career and flourish.

A place where the tears would stop.

She found it at Sac State.

After going 9-18 with a 2.90 ERA in her first collegiate season with San Jose State in 2002, Ferguson has put together a 33-25 record and a 1.78 ERA over two-plus seasons with the Hornets.

“The atmosphere up here is so much better; the athletic department is friendlier,” Ferguson said. “You don’t feel like you’re all alone up here.”

Ferguson will pitch for the third time against her former team this Saturday as the Spartans come to Sacramento for a noon double header at Shea Stadium.

In her three previous appearances against the Spartans — two starts and a relief stint — Ferguson has posted two wins and a no decision.

“All I want to do is prove her wrong,” said Ferguson of her former coach. “The motivation to do well is so strong.

“I have so much hatred for them.”

Despite the subpar record in her freshman season, Ferguson went 4-1 down the stretch for the Spartans in 2002, shutting out perennial powerhouses Pacific and then-No. 8 Stanford and beating No. 14 Fresno State in her final three starts, respectively.

“When I went in for my after-season meeting, I was expecting her to be congratulatory, like, ‘We’re looking forward to having you next year,'” Ferguson said. “Instead I got, ‘I don’t like your attitude, you’re never going to make it in Division I softball. You can have your release.”I made up my mind then I wanted out.”

Enabenter-Omidiji could not be reached for comment.

Current Hornet assistant coach Amy Walter began her playing career at San Jose State, a year before Enabenter-Omidiji took over.

As a freshman, Walter hit .231, slugged .291 and posted a .331 on-base percentage but saw those numbers fall to a .200 batting average, .288 slugging percentage and a .265 on-base percentage in her sophomore season under Enabenter-Omidiji’s guidance.

“I don’t feel that (Enabenter-Omidiji) treated me like an athlete or a human being,” Walter said.

Walter said that her former coach repeatedly put her down, telling her that she didn’t recruit her there and didn’t want her there and that her scholarship release was “on my desk waiting for you to sign it.”

All this while Walter was putting together a season that earned her a second-team All-WAC selection.

Walter said the final straw was a meeting she had with Enabenter-Omidiji in which she says she was berated for an hour because of her performance to that point in her sophomore season.

“She took about 15 minutes during practice with everyone else,” Walter said. “She waited until everyone left and chewed me out for an hour in the dugout.”

Last season — Ferguson’s junior and Walter’s senior campaign at Sac State — Ferguson was the Hornets’ only first-team All-Pacific Coast Softball Conference selection while Walter made the second team.

Hornet coach Kathy Strahan, who head coached at San Jose State from 1986-92, said whenever San Jose State appeared on the schedule, there was a noticeable change in both players’ demeanor and play.

“Judging by both of their performances against their former team, if I were in the other dugout I would be thinking to myself, ‘How the heck did we let that go?'” Strahan said. “Amy, in particular, would just play at another level. I’m just so happy how it worked out for us, we’ve been a match made in heaven.”

Said Ferguson: “Beating them is enough satisfaction for me. They all know I went to a better team, that I don’t have to put up with the stuff they do every day and I don’t have to play for Dee Dee.”