Fun, resilient, close friends and competitive — That is how Sacramento State’s Softball coach Kathy Strahan describes her team.

Strahan 23rd year in coaching, she said she is confident in her team. She should be confident considering the Hornets come into this season chosen No. 1 in the preseason coaches poll as the favorites to win the conference and get the automatic NCAA Regional bid.

The team proved it can win when it entered the National Invitational Softball Tournament in Sunnyvale, Calif, last year, where the Hornets went undefeated in four games in two days. The team is very close, a bond that has formed with practicing for four hours a day and playing over 50 games a year.

At practices, all the players laugh and joke with each other and always show support, even when a player is struggling.

The team has won at least 30 games the past four seasons, including last season, when it finished 35-20, its best record since 1995, when it finished 40-15.

Last season ended with Sac State finishing one game behind Portland State in the Pacific Coast Conference Standings.

The Hornets look to have just as much success despite graduating six of their players, including two of their best players, pitcher Nikki Cinque, who finished second in the conference in wins and home runs, and last season’s Pacific Conference Player of the Year award winner Lindy Winkler.

Despite the losses, Sac State Softball returns with a talented team. Returning players and team co-captains Amy Tompkins and Katie Rhoe lead Sac into the season.

The second baseman and shortstop Tompkins is a junior, who last season batted .238 with 19 runs and one home run and is an effective defender. The team is 33-14 in games in which Tompkins starts at shortstop.

Tompkins hails from Salinas, Calif. and is known for her leadership, which is the reason why Strahan named her as one of the team’s captains.

Katie Rhoe is a senior outfielder from Concord, Calif. Last season, she was the team’s main pinch runner and in the 26 games that she entered as the pinch runner, she scored 12 times. The team was 9-3 in games that Rhoe scored a run.

The criminal justice major is also a vocal leader and was named this off-season as a co-captain with Tompkins and is motivating the team toward the conference championship. “We have worked so hard, come so close the past two years, it’s so frustrating, we’re coming in this season with a chip on our shoulder,” Rhoe said.

The Hornets won 13 of their final 17 games and appear to have all the talent they need to win the conference but the Hornets also have confidence.

“It’s our conference championship to lose,” Tompkins said. Not only are they picked to win the conference in the polls, but Strahan and the Hornets believe that with so many good players returning on a team that has gotten better every year, they can go far in the NCAA tournament.

“This team is definitely the best in the conference,” Strahan said, “we believe that we can match up with any team we face.” The Hornets will have their hands full in the Pacific Coast Conference. Sac State’s main rivals will Portland Sate and Loyola Marymount University, which are both in the Pacific Coast.

Portland State won the division last year, one game better than Sac with a 38-20 record and will back to win again. LMU finished third in the standings with a 29-24 record.

After finishing second in its conference, the team swept the conference champs Portland State four straight games to wrap up the season last year. Sac State knows that everything counts and “one game makes a difference,” Rhoe said.

Lamont Weaver can be reached at [email protected]