After more than three hours of mounting tension and nervous excitement, the Sacramento State softball team outlasted No. 7 Stanford, earning an upset victory in the first game of a doubleheader 3-2 on a Cardinal fielding error in the bottom of the 11th inning on Wednesday evening at Shea Stadium.

“It’s a great win for the program,” Hornet coach Kathy Strahan said. “We certainly like to win the close ones.”

A chopper off the bat of Erin Coyne with runners on first and second and two outs was too much for Stanford first baseman Erin Howe as the ball grazed off her glove and trickled away from her allowing Hornet outfielder Hilary Johnson to score from second base.

After congratulating Johnson at home plate, every Hornet in uniform turned their attention up the first baseline to Coyne and mobbed her just left of first base. The game was the longest either team played this year and officially lasted three hours and 10 minutes.

“It really felt like we won a championship,” Sac State co-captain Jess Rojo said. “This was a total team effort.”

After Stanford tied the game in the top of the sixth inning on a Catalina Morris bases-loaded single, the teams dueled for five scoreless innings before Johnson led off the 11th with a single and was sacrificed into scoring position by Lesley Mayhorn. Lindy Winkler was then walked intentionally setting the stage for Coyne.

Both teams had 14 hits and the Cardinal left 15 runners stranded while the Hornets left 14 runners on base.

Hornet starter Brianne Ferguson went the first six innings allowing just the two runs on eight hits while striking out six. After allowing the tying runs she gave way to Junior Nikki Cinque who went the rest of the way, scattering six hits and getting out of numerous jams to get the win.

“I was really nervous … but I’ve always pitched better under stress,” Cinque said.

Cinque had a runner on third with less than two outs in both the seventh and eighth innings only to wriggle her way out of trouble. In the seventh, Cinque got Howe to hit a ground ball right back to her and caught pinch runner Heather Shook — who was trying to go the plate — in a pickle for the first out. From there she got induced a groundout and struck out Anna Beardman to end the inning.

“I push harder with runners on base,” Cinque said. “I focus more on my pitch every time.”

In the eighth designated player Jackie Rhinehart walked with one out and advanced to third on a Morris single only to be stranded 60 feet from home when Cinque got Lauren Lappin to line into third baseman Amy Hillel’s glove, touching off a double play to end the inning.

After the game was tied, Hillel made three big defensive plays to end Stanford innings. After double play in the eighth, Hillel backhanded a line drive that hopped less than a foot in front of her and fired to first for the third out and in the 11th she got her glove up just in time to stop a line drive from finding the outfield grass.

“I don’t want anything to get by me — especially not in the later innings,” Hillel said. “We were excited the whole time.

“We didn’t give up hope, not even when they scored those two runs.”

In the nightcap Stanford took out its pent up frustration from game one on Hornet sophomore Jennifer Fryou. The Cardinal struck for 10 runs in the top of the first, belting four home runs in that inning alone en route to a 16-1 win. Fryou pitched five innings before the eight run mercy rule was enacted and the game was called.

“In the first game we hit the ball hard — we just didn’t get any breaks,” said Morris, who hit two of the Cardinal’s six round-trippers. “We knew we needed to come out in the second game and keep swinging hard.”

Fryou made only her fifth start of the season and second against Stanford this season; in that game at Stanford she went all six innings in a 6-1 loss.

“They’re great hitters and they were obviously pissed after losing that first game,” Fryou said. “I felt perfect in warm-ups and everything was going good.

“In the game things weren’t working and (Stanford) let me know that.”

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John Parker can be reached at [email protected]