Big Sky Championship Central

OGDEN, Utah — Sacramento State capped an incredible day offensively by pounding out 10 runs and 12 hits in a 10-4 victory over Montana in the Big Sky Conference Softball Championship on Friday afternoon at the Wildcat Softball Complex.

The Hornets (28-21), who opened the tournament with a loss to Idaho State yesterday, beat both Southern Utah (17-0) and Montana (10-4) today in the double-elimination tournament. In fact, Sacramento State eliminated both Southern Utah and Montana from the six-team postseason event.

Sacramento State had an incredible day offensively, combining to hit .493 (34-for-69) over two games with 27 runs, 34 hits, seven doubles, 26 RBIs, a .667 slugging percentage and a .519 on-base percentage. The Hornets' 22 hits in the win over Southern Utah was a program single-game record as well as a Big Sky record. For an encore, the Hornets tacked on 12 more hits against a Montana team that defeated Portland State earlier today.

The Hornets still have a tough climb if they want to win the Big Sky title and receive the league's subsequent berth into the NCAA Regionals. Sacramento State will need to beat Idaho State tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. PDT, and then win a pair of afternoon games against Weber State. The Weber State game times would be 12:30 p.m. PDT and 3:30 p.m. PDT should the Hornets advance that far. Weber State is 2-0 at the tournament, and needs just one win tomorrow to claim the Big Sky title. Weber State is the No. 1 seed and tournament host, and finished a half game ahead of No. 2 seed Sacramento State in the regular season conference standings.

The Hornets saw five different players combine for at least four hits today, including Shelby Johnston, who was 6-for-7 with four runs scored, two RBIs and a walk. Jessica Ravetti was 5-for-8 with four runs and seven RBIs, Zamari Hinton 4-for-7 with four runs, Kailey Olcott 4-for-8 with a run and an RBI and Sydney Rasmussen was 4-for-9 with four runs and two RBIs. Sasha Margulies had two hits, two walks, a home run and six RBIs while extending her streak of reaching base safely to 26 consecutive games.

Idaho State lost its game to Weber State today, 6-0, and either the Hornets or Bengals will be eliminated from the tournament by the time their game concludes tomorrow morning.

Defensively, the Hornets were flawless in the field today while the pitching staff posted a 2.33 ERA, allowing just 10 hits in 12.0 innings while limiting the opposition to a .227 batting average. Sacramento State got a scare in the Montana game when the Grizzlies' Ashlyn Lyons lined a ball off sophomore right-hander Celina Matthias' right knee. Matthias had to leave the game with injury, and her availability for tomorrow's games is questionable. Matthias was named the Big Sky's Pitcher of the Year earlier this week.

The Hornets then turned to true freshman Savanna Corr, who was incredible in the circle the rest of the way. In fact, Corr yielded just two hits in 4.1 shutout innings of relief to improve her record to 5-3. In addition, Corr retired the final eight batters she faced.

The win over Montana saw the Hornets score three times in the first inning, four more in the fourth, once in the fifth and two in the sixth. Sacramento State trailed, 4-3, through three innings before the Hornets put up the four spot in the fourth.

A two-run homer from Margulies and an RBI-single from Johnston accounted for the Hornets' runs in the first. The round tripper for Margulies was her team-high fifth of the season and 10th in her three-year career with the Hornets. Montana would score twice in the bottom of the first and third innings to take a 4-3 lead. However, that lead was short lived as the Hornets posted four runs and five hits in the top of the fourth.

All four runs in the fourth inning were scored with two outs, including a nine-pitch at-bat in which Rasmussen singled home Johnston. Margulies would eventually walk with the bases loaded and Ravetti had a big two-run single to left that scored both Rasmussen and Hinton. By the end of the inning, the Hornets had a 7-4 lead and would tack on insurance in the form of a Hinton bases-loaded walk in the fifth as well as a Kortney Solis RBI-triple and sacrifice fly from Kayla Papez in the sixth.

Eight of the Hornets' nine starters had at least one hit, including multi-hit games for Ravetti (2-for-3 with two runs and two RBIs), Olcott (2-for-4) and Johnston (3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI). Johnston had a big day, finishing with three hits in both games to lift her season batting average to .293. Margulies is currently hitting .399 in her quest to become the first Hornet in the program's Div. I era to hit at least .400 in multiple seasons (she hit .404 last year).

Montana used four pitchers in today's game, and Colleen Driscoll (2-2) got the loss, allowing four hits and four runs in three innings of relief.