Sacramento State women’s softball kicked off the Capitol Classic today at Shea stadium beating Pennsylvania State 6-1.

The Hornets improved their record to 8-12 after coming back from a tough loss on Tuesday against the UC Davis Aggies, while Penn State dropped their record to 10-10.

Along with the Hornets’ success in the circle today and their strong batting, the key for them was to be relaxed playing out on the field according to coach Lori Perez

“We consciously just tried to bring some fun back into the game,” Perez said.

Senior Caitlin Brooks pitched a complete game for Sac State, allowing just two hits and one run in the seven innings. Her ERA thus far is 3.00.

Brooks also agreed with Perez that her success came from staying loose and to avoid overthinking.

“We were just kind of in a slump at this point in the season, so we just went out and had fun today,” Brooks said.

This new approach certainly seemed to work for their defense as they let only one run in at the top of the fifth inning when Penn State third baseman Alyssa VanDerveer doubled to left field and got an RBI for her team.

The team’s success also came from their offense as Penn State’s pitchers were unable to strikeout the side.

Alexa Chattleton started the game off for Sac State when she singled down the infield line and scored teammate Paige Castro home. That left the bottom of the fourth inning 1-0 with the Hornets in the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth inning first baseman Sasha Margulies singled to third base and Paige Martin scored. The score was now 2-1 as they headed into the top of the sixth inning.

In the sixth, the Hornets were dominate and ran away with the lead, going from 2-1 to a 6-1 over the Nittany Lions.

The first RBI of the sixth inning came from Nichole Clark, the pinch hitter for Sac State. She singled down the infield line and Makenzie Wayadande scored. Martin singled to left center and Clark scored. Martin had an unearned run after the shortstop made an error. Zamari Hinton had the last run for the Hornets of the inning, it was unearned.

Margulies collected three hits and two RBIs, Chattleton recorded two hits and an RBI and Martin finished with two runs scored.

The Hornets shut down Penn State at the top of the seventh inning, sealing the win.

The four-day tournament will continue tomorrow going on until Sunday. Tomorrow the women will take on Grand Canyon University at 3:45 p.m. at Shea Stadium.