Sacramento State battled against visiting conference foe Northern Colorado. The Hornets swept the series, adding 22 runs through the 3-game stretch.
Friday, Game 1: Northern Colorado 3, Sac State 10
The Hornets got things started early, setting the tone for the 7-run win.
In the first inning, junior outfielder Lafulafu Malepeai launched a home run to right field to get the affair started.
Great start for the Hornets! Malepeai leads off bottom 1 with a shot to right-center! Her 6th home run of the season #StingersUp pic.twitter.com/aDMYPThph9
— Sacramento State Softball (@SacStSoftball) April 11, 2025
In the same inning, with freshman utility player Madison Evers-Lyles on third, a sacrifice fly led to a run to put the Hornets ahead by two in the first.
Another sacrifice fly led to junior catcher Katie Marsh crossing home plate to make it 3-0 in the second.
In the third, the Bears got on the board with two unearned runs off of Hornet fielding errors before junior outfielder Andrea Lira scored on a wild pitch, bringing the score to 4-2.
The Bears scored off another error, resulting in another unearned run to reduce the gap to one. Soon after, the Hornets responded and went on a scoring streak that would end the game.
Through the fifth and sixth innings, the Hornets scored five runs off five hits. Two runs came from Malepeai, followed by Evers-Lyles, junior infielder Jenna Birch, and a home run from Lira to top it off for the 10-3 win.
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“I was thinking about my teammates,” Malepeai said. “Seeing how everyone is fighting through the aches and pains made me want to play even harder for them.’’
The team had 10 runs off eight hits to secure the first game in a doubleheader win.
Friday, Game 2: Northern Colorado 5, Sac State 7
In the second game of Friday’s doubleheader the score was back and forth in the middle innings until the Hornets made a play to seal the deal.
The Bears got on the board first with a 2-run lead after a pair of sacrifice hits allowed a runner to steal home.
Sac State responded quickly with a Marsh double that brought home Lira and Evers-Lyles to tie the game at two apiece at the end of the first.
The second through fourth inning, there wasn’t much action, as both sides retired batters left and right.
Evers-Lyles got the bats rolling again in the fifth, hitting a double that brought in Malepeai and junior outfielder Faith Epperson to give the Hornets a 4-2 lead.
The Bears kept things interesting, adding in two runs off singles to tie the game at four apiece.
The climax of the game happened after the score was tied. Senior pitcher Caroline Evans, in a pinch-hitting role, blasted a 3-run home run that sent Shea Stadium into an eruption of cheers and sealed the Hornets’ 7-5 win.
CAROLINE EVANS! Her pinch-hit 3-run homer in the 6th gives the Hornets a 7-5 lead over Northern Colorado! #StingersUp pic.twitter.com/KAA6HZwDPE
— Sacramento State Softball (@SacStSoftball) April 11, 2025
“Coach Perez came up to me and asked if I was ready,” Evans said. “When I was put into the game, I knew I needed to put a good swing on a pitch in that at-bat. I wasn’t trying to do anything fancy, and whenever I don’t press too much, that’s when good things happen.”
Saturday, Game 3: Northern Colorado 1, Sac State 5
In the last game of this series, the Hornets kept up their powerful offense to get the final win and pull off the sweep.
Pitching struggles were on full display early on, with walks coming from both sides. Neither offense got started until the third when five runs crossed the plate for the Hornets.
Both reaching on a fielder’s choice, Malepeai and Evers-Lyles scored the first two runs for Sac State.
In the same inning, freshman catcher Alexa Carino flied out, but a Bears fielding error let Lira score an unearned run and gave the Hornets a 3-0 lead.
Continuing the scoring run, sophomore first baseman Malissa George hit Marsh and Evers-Lyles in with an RBI single to put the Hornets up 5-0. The Bears couldn’t recover.
The Hornets didn’t have to do much in this game. They excelled at forcing ground outs and scored five runs off just three hits in the game.
They won the series in a 3-0 sweep, moving up to second in the Big Sky Conference, a key point they wanted to accomplish.
“I was proud of how we came out early on a little bit of a tough start, but we worked through it and it was great to kind of get our bats going in that third,” Sac State head coach Lori Perez said. “It’s gonna come down to who makes the first mistake or executes first, and luckily for us, we got a little bit of both on that ending.”
The Hornets are now back over .500 and 20-18 on the season. The Hornets play four games this week, starting with a single game at Pacific on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and another Big Sky series at home versus Weber State starting Friday at noon.
