The Sacramento State women’s softball team opened league play in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference with two wins, 10-3 and 6-2, over conference opponent Santa Clara University on Saturday at Shea Stadium. The day’s games were part of the think pink program for breast cancer awareness.

The day saw the return of Hornet ace Megan Schaefer to the mound after three weeks on the injured list due to a concussion. She showed a little bit of rust as she allowed three runs to score in the top of the second inning. These would be the only runs she would allow the entire game.

Schaefer got the win; giving up three runs, two earned, with one walk and striking out four. Her record now stands at four wins and three losses on the season. The Santa Clara starter, Kaitlyn Ruaschnot would earn the loss for the Broncos; her record is three wins and ten losses.

Ruaschnot would last just one and a third innings, as she would give up eight runs; five of those were earned to the Hornets. Sac State ran the Santa Clara starter by scoring five runs in the first and another three in the second.

Most of the run production came from three home runs hit by Sac State batters. Jillian Canete hit a three run home run in the first, followed by teammate Emily McCormick’s three run home run in the second, and Alyssa Nakken’s solo home run in the fourth.

Schaefer said that she felt relieved to have so much help from the team.

“The team was phenomenal today, offensively and defensively,” Schaefer said. “Having that run support is like having pressure taken off.”

That run support would make its way into the second game, as the Hornets started Shelby Voelz against Santa Clara starter Riley McKay.

Voelz would allow two runs in a complete game win as she went the full seven innings, striking out a career high ten batters. Her record now stands at six wins and thirteen losses for the season. For the Broncos, McKay would earn the loss, giving up six runs, five earned and running her record to one win and three losses.

Sac State scored three times in the game. In the fifth the Hornets had back-to-back home runs by third basemen Erin Jones and right fielder Jenice Bartee.

On beginning conference play with two wins, Bartee feels that the team has to keep coming with everything it has for the rest of the team’s games.

“Its huge, it’s our first winning streak; we haven’t won two games in a row,” Bartee said. “Conference is a clean slate and we have set the bar pretty high so we have to keep bring our A game.”

For head coach Cathy Strahan, she felt the team really benefited from a personal talk by breast cancer survivor Molly Ximenez. Ximenez spoke to the team before their first game and Strahan believes the team was able to generate a lot of energy from that personal talk.

“We got a lot of excitement out of breast cancer awareness day,” Strahan said. “Molly, a breast cancer survivor, threw out the first pitch and gave the team a pep talk, the team seemed to really respond to that.”

Going into the next two games with Santa Clara and for the rest of the season, Strahan wants the team to just focus on each game one at a time.

“We are going out and just play one game at a time. And bring it all, bring our A game,” Strahan said. “We just need to keep our energy up and that was the word of the day that coach Hoyt delivered to the team.”

The same two teams will play another double header Sunday, at Shea Stadium.

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]