The Sacramento State softball team can usually depend on its ace pitching staff to carry it through games. Playing card decks don’t come with five of one card, however, and on Wednesday afternoon third-ranked California brought two aces of its own to Shea Stadium.

Woodland native Kelly Anderson and Kristina Thorson combined to stymie Hornet hitters, allowing just one run over two games to lift the Golden Bears to a non-conference doubleheader sweep.

“They’re No. 3 for a good reason,” Sac State coach Kathy Strahan said. “Their pitching is really incredible.”

Anderson, who said she was pitching in front of a number of people that don’t normally see her play, threw a four-hit gem allowing just one run en route to a 3-1 Golden Bear victory in the opener while Thorson tied her season-high in strikeouts in the nightcap, dominating a 5-0 Cal win .

“It’s always fun to pitch in front of the hometown crowd,” Anderson said. “More people come out to watch you play.”

Sac State’s pitching — which sported a 1.55 team ERA entering the doubleheader — wasn’t bad either. Brianne Ferguson, Nikki Cinque and Jennifer Fryou cooled the potent Golden Bear attack for the better part of six innings in the opener, allowing a run in the first and two in the seventh, setting down 14 straight Cal batters in between.

“This is the highest competition we can face,” co-captain Jess Rojo said. “For us to shut them out for that many innings shows what we can do.”

Ferguson started game one for the Hornets on sunny but chilly afternoon at Shea Stadium and allowed the first run of the ballgame on a Kaleo Eldredge bunt, which scored Vicky Galindo who had led the game off with a triple. Eldredge reached base on the play when Rojo bobbled the ball.

The Galindo triple was the only hit Ferguson allowed as she went two innings before handing things over to Cinque. Cinque set down all six hitters she faced.

“I had to be a smarter pitcher today because they’re smarter hitters — it is Cal,” Cinque said, “

In working the final three innings, Fryou duplicated Cinque’s performance, sitting down the first six Golden Bears she saw before allowing two runs in the seventh — one on an Emily Friedman RBI single and the other on a Jeana Gevas sacrifice fly.

Meanwhile, Anderson dazzled the Hornets for six innings, striking out eight, before allowing a run in the bottom of the seventh on a Lindy Winkler RBI-triple, which scored Lesley Mayhorn — who had singled to open the inning — from first base.

Anderson — a Collegiate Player of the Year candidate along with teammates Lindsay James and Galindo — earned her 20th win of the season against one loss.

Strahan said her team impressed her in the way the responded to the challenge of playing a perennial national title contender.

“There were some real positives for us today,” Strahan said. “When you can face competition like that, it definitely beats a regular practice day.”

However, there were fewer positives and a whole lot more strikeouts in the nightcap as Thorson tied her season-high, fanning 12 Hornets on the way to a shutout.

Thorson’s battery mate, junior catcher Haley Woods, hit a two-run homer in the first off of Cinque and Cal never looked back, tacking on three more runs of support for Thorson.

Coming off a loss on Sunday in Berkeley against No. 12 UCLA, Thorson said the quick turnaround didn’t seem to bother her, that in fact it’s beneficial.

“It’s a little tough (to pitch in the middle of the week),” Thorson said. “But it’s also good for us because at (NCAA) Regionals you pitch four or five days a week, so it gets us ready for that.”

One Hornet that didn’t seem fazed by Thorson, who was a second-team All-America selection last year as a sophomore, was Rojo. The senior second baseman went 2-for-3 against Thorson and was one of only four Hornets to earn a hit in the game. Rojo had been mired in a 1-for-33 slump, with the only hit coming against No. 21 Arizona State.

“I usually get pumped up for top-notch teams,” Rojo said. “When you face teams as confident as they are, I take that as a challenge.”

Cal — looking to make a fourth-consecutive trip to the Women’s College World Series — improved to 37-5 this season, while Sac State fell to 21-19.

Strahan said she felt the heightened competition gives her team an edge as the team continues Pacific Coast Softball Conference action at noon this Saturday against St. Mary’s at Shea Stadium. The Hornets are fourth in the conference at 4-4 after being selected to finish second in the preseason coaches’ poll.

“We can make this work for us,” Strahan said. “We can take this cutting edge with us into Saturday because we need to roll.”

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John Parker can be reached at [email protected]