Sophomore pitcher Tanner Mendonca arrived at Sacramento State and in front of him were two opportunities heading in different directions.

One path would lead him to John Smith Field, pitching for the Hornets’ baseball team. The other would lead him to Hornet Stadium, throwing touchdowns for the Hornets’ football team.

Mendonca excelled in both sports at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, Calif., and finally made up his mind. He walked toward the baseball field.

“As a kid, it was my dream to play college baseball,” Mendonca said. “My focus has always been on baseball. It has always been my favorite sport.”

Even though his first love is baseball, he was born with football in his blood. His father Chris Mendonca played two seasons as quarterback for the University of Utah.

But Mendonca said he never felt any pressure on being a Ute and putting on the pads to play college football.

“I basically let him decide on what to do and guided him and coached him,” Chris Mendonca said.

Although he was raised as a Utes’ football fan and watched games with his dad on Saturdays, he never got the chance to wear Utah’s colors – he chose green and gold instead.

“I grew up being a Utah fan and it would have been awesome to have that opportunity, but it wasn’t there,” Mendonca said. “I didn’t have a lot of football offers.”

With football and baseball being similar, Mendonca used the two to compliment one another.

“There are a lot of pressure situations and you are in control of the game,” Mendonca said. “As quarterback, I have to throw to the right guy and as a pitcher I have to make my pitch in the right location.”

During his junior and senior years of varsity football at Mt. Whitney, he passed for a combined 5,849 yards and 55 touchdowns.

Mendonca traded in his football helmet for a baseball cap during the spring of those years and took the mound, finishing with a combined 7-7 record, 2.23 ERA and 106 strikeouts. As the team’s shortstop, he helped his team with a .355 batting average.

With not many offers from schools to play either sport, Sac State called wanting him for both. Sac State wanted him as its quarterback and a starting pitcher, but holding both positions was not going to work out.

“Being a quarterback and being a pitcher it would have been very difficult with all that throwing,” Mendonca said. “If I was a position player, it might have been a different story.”

Mendonca’s football coach Justin Fowler said in high school it is common to see athletes play more than one sport and at Mt. Whitney, Fowler said 80 to 90 percent of the players were multi-sport athletes.

“I prefer multi-sport athletes,” Fowler said. “If a kid can compete in a variety of sports, I think that’s better. I think not only from an academic side, making sure the athletes are eligible and they are being monitored, but I think they are competing from a physical perspective. Kids get the opportunity to compete in a variety of settings and they get to enjoy something else. I think they are not going to look at it like a whole lot of work but a sense of enjoyment in it.”

At Sac State, no athlete plays more than one sport because students do not have time, said the Sac State athletic department.

With football now behind him, Mendonca focuses on his baseball career. After having a subpar freshman season with two wins and a 5.73 ERA, he said he established an offseason workout routine helping him become stronger and faster.

“I started lifting weights a lot more and it helped me throw the ball harder and last longer in games.” Mendonca said.

Hornets’ head coach Reggie Christiansen has seen a significant difference in the way Mendonca has pitched the last two seasons.

“He has worked really hard to put himself in a position to be a lot stronger,” Christiansen said. “Mentally, he really understands what he is trying to do with hitters. He doesn’t make the same mistake twice.”

In his first two games this season, he is 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA and has pitched the first complete game shutout for the Hornets since March 24, 2007 against Stanford.

Whether he is on a football field or a baseball diamond, throwing passes or throwing strikes, Mendonca knows what he is – a baseball player who was playing quarterback.

Ryan Kuhn can be reached @rskuhn