Over the last week and a half Sacramento State Softball has traveled all the way to New Mexico, followed by Santa Barbara for their latest tournament. They played eight total games with four wins and four losses, coming away with a 7-5 overall record.
The Hornets started strong with back-to-back wins against North Dakota on Friday, Feb. 8, in the Troy Cox Classic. In game one they triggered the mercy rule for the second time this season, capping the game at six innings with an 8-0 score.
Senior right fielder Haley Hanson started the Hornets’ scoring run off in the third inning by stealing home. By the sixth inning they were up by seven and senior third baseman Lewa Day pushed them over the edge with her third home run of the season.
“Our offense used all of our weapons, speed and power,” Sac State head coach Lori Perez said.
North Dakota put up more of a fight in game two, but couldn’t recover from another three-run homer from Day which pushed the score to 6-3. This was her third three-run homer of the season and her fourth home run overall.
On the mound for the Hornets, senior pitcher Savannah Wahl pitched an impressive 12 strikeouts, the most from a Sac State pitcher this season and a career high.
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Nebraska was a whole new challenge for the Hornets, they lost both games against them 4-5 on Saturday, Feb. 17 and 3-8 on Sunday, Feb. 18. However it wasn’t a total loss, freshman second baseman Malissa George hit her own three-run homer on the board, the first of her collegiate career, earning the only three runs of the second game.
“A few of our newcomers are definitely making an impact in different ways,” Perez said. “Whether it be in their hitting, defense or pitching, each one is contributing to the good of the team.”
New Mexico State put up a good fight Saturday, Feb. 17, but despite pulling ahead in the first inning and continuing to push offensively, they just couldn’t keep up with the Hornets. Sac State put 20 runs on the board to the Aggies’ 10, tying the team record for runs in one game since 2008.
“It was so cold outside,” Hanson said. “It was just about trying not to get distracted by the elements we couldn’t control. We were seeing the ball really well that night.”
New Mexico had 12 errors compared to just one by Sac State,eight of those errors led to Hornet runs.
“It was definitely an offensive game,” Day said. “But we were able to stop them more than they were able to stop us.”
Sac State made a quick stop in Fresno on Wednesday, Feb. 21, on their way to Santa Barbara where they took another hard loss, only scraping two runs against the Bulldogs’ six. Junior pitcher Caroline Evans held Fresno State scoreless until the third inning where they scored all six of their runs.
Senior pitcher Marissa Bertuccio relieved Evans in the fourth inning and kept the Bulldogs in check for the rest of the game, but it wasn’t enough.
The Hornets never played UC Santa Barbara, the planned doubleheader was rained out and they only played half of the planned four games. They split both games against Michigan with a win on Friday, Feb. 23, and a loss on Saturday.
In the first game Bertuccio kept Michigan scoreless until the sixth inning only giving up one run. George hit her second home run of the season, this time solo, cementing the Hornets’ win against this Big 10 conference school for the first time in 27 years.
Game two proved to be more of a contest, ending in another one-run difference despite Sac State managing to tie it up in the bottom of the fifth. Wahl, Evans and freshman pitcher Keeli Smith all faced off against Michigan’s bats, but the Hornets ultimately could not generate enough offense in this 3-4 loss.
“We want our players to play with a ton of confidence,” Perez said. “Our team is playing good competition and we are in every game we play.”
The Hornets will be back at home playing BYU in the Capital Classic on Thursday at 11 a.m.
