The Sacramento State softball team is heading to Oregon this weekend to play Portland State, and when the Hornets travel, they bring the noise.

For Sac State, coordinated chants and dugout cheering are just as much a part of the game as bats, balls and gloves.

“Our cheers bring morale up, the team feeds off them,” said junior third baseman Britany Crine. “We don’t want to send just one person up to bat, we want to send the whole team up.”

Sac State has a cheer tailored to every single player for when she is in the batters’ box as well as a chant for nearly every situation in a softball game.

For instance, a long foul ball would elicit, “Holy cow, that was foul! Mooooove it over! Holy sheep, that was deep! Baaaaack it up!”

Crine’s at-bat cheer is inspired by the seagulls in “Finding Nemo.” When she sets foot in the batter’s box teammates in the dugout chant “five” (her jersey number) over and over.”I love that one,” Crine said, “It makes me relax at the plate.”

Hornet coach Kathy Strahan recalls the first time she heard the cheer in a game two years ago against Stanford: “It’s not easy to get me to crack a smile on the field, but that one got me.”I think we even had the whole left side of Stanford’s infield cracking up.”

Crine and sophomore outfielder Katie Rhoe lead most of the cheers from the dugout along with senior co-captain Lesley Mayhorn; most of them begin with one of the three shouting the preamble of the cheer, followed by the team’s response.

Rhoe said that in addition to supporting teammates, the cheers also get in the opposing team’s head, giving the Hornets a mental edge on the competition.

“It’s gotta be a downer for (opponents),” Rhoe said. “I’m sure it gets in their heads.

“They also keep us in games. I don’t know of too many games we’ve won that we haven’t been up and cheering.”

The creative influence behind many of the cheers is the charismatic Mayhorn, whose voice can be heard over even the most boisterous of crowds at Shea Stadium. Like when a Hornet hitter has worked a three-ball count, (a la the Count from “Sesame Street,”) “Three balls, hah-hah-hah.”

Last weekend the Hornets nearly met their match in Pacific Coast Softball Conference foe St. Mary’s. Throughout the weekend the Gaels, whom the Hornets swept in a four-game series, matched Sac State — not hit-for-hit, but shout-for-shout.

“Sac State and St. Mary’s are the most consistently loud teams I’ve seen,” said Gael catcher Eleni Papailias, who was seen perched on the railing in St. Mary’s dugout, leading many of her team’s chants.

Strahan said that the only guidelines she sets for her team is that the cheers be clean and support Sac State while not demeaning the opposing team.

“I think we win the cup when it comes to loud cheering,” Strahan said. “We could even win a talent show with some of the ones they come up with.

“More people comment on it than you might imagine; I guess we’ve earned a bit of a reputation for it.”

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John Parker can be reached at [email protected]