Big Sky Championship Central

OGDEN, Utah — Sacramento State's season came to an end after a 7-4 loss to Idaho State in the fourth round of the Big Sky Conference Softball Championship on Saturday morning at the Wildcat Softball Complex.

The Hornets finished the tournament with a 2-2 record and conclude the season with a 28-22 overall mark. The 28 victories ties for the most in the last eight years. Sacramento State opened the tournament with a loss on Thursday to Idaho State, before defeating and eliminating both Southern Utah and Montana yesterday. That set up Championship Saturday in which only three teams remained in the six-team, double-elimination tournament (Idaho State, Sacramento State and tournament host Weber State).

In order for the Hornets to claim the Big Sky title, the team would have needed to beat Idaho State this morning and follow that up with two wins against Weber State this afternoon. Sacramento State, however, could not figure out Idaho State, as the Hornets were 0-2 at the tournament and 1-4 against the Bengals this season.

Weber State then defeated Idaho State, 4-2, this afternoon to claim their second straight Big Sky Tournament championship. The Wildcats will represent the Big Sky at the NCAA Regionals. It was Weber State that won the regular season title and right to host the tournament after finishing a half game ahead of Sacramento State with a 15-5 conference record. The Hornets were the No. 2 seed at the tournament with a 15-6 league mark.

During the Hornets' four games at the tournament, Sacramento State batted .405 as a team, and saw eight of nine starters hit better than .300. That included Shelby Johnston (.636, 7-for-11, 4 runs), Jessica Ravetti (.500, 7-for-14, 4 runs, 4 doubles, 8 RBIs), Zamari Hinton (.500, 7-for-14, 5 runs), Kayla Papez (.455, 5-for-11, 3 RBIs), Kortney Solis (.333, 5-for-15, 4 runs, 4 RBIs), Sydney Rasmussen (.333, 5-for-15, 4 runs), Sasha Margulies (.333, 3-for-9, 5 walks, 4 runs, 2 homers, 7 RBIs) and Kailey Olcott (.308, 4-for-13, 2 runs).

Johnston, Ravetti and Hinton were each selected to the all-tournament team.

Sacramento State concludes the season with a .303 team batting average, a .969 fielding percentage and a 3.51 ERA, all solid numbers for a program that has combined to go 42-16 in league play over the last three seasons. In fact, the .303 batting average is the second best mark in the program's Div. I era (1990-pres.) as six different Sacramento State regulars hit better than .300. That includes Margulies (.397), Hinton (.356), Rasmussen (.326), Olcott (.326), Ravetti (.324) and Solis (.307).

Margulies finished her career with a .386 batting average, easily the program's best mark in the Div. I era. In addition, Hinton, a sophomore, now owns a .335 career batting average, the fifth best mark in Sacramento State's Div. I era.

In today's game, Sacramento State got on the board early when a two-out, RBI-double from Ravetti scored Margulies all the way from first base. The score remained 1-0 through four innings as Hornet freshman right-hander Savanna Corr was impressive, retiring 12 batters in a row at one point.

However, after Corr struck out the first batter of the fifth inning, the Bengals eventually loaded the bases with two outs when center fielder Katelyn Marquez had perhaps the biggest hit of the game, a three-run triple to take a 3-1 lead. Sacramento State immediately responded with a Papez RBI-double scoring Olcott in the bottom of the fifth to shave the deficit to 3-2.

Idaho State scored three times in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly from Ashlyn Ames and a two-out, two-run single from Reis Birkett. The final two runs of the inning were unearned as Sacramento State had an error in the inning that prolonged the frame.

The Hornets, however, mounted another rally in the bottom of the sixth after Margulies led off the inning with a solo homer to center field. After a Ravetti walk, Solis doubled to right-center field, but Ravetti was thrown out at the plate in what turned out to be a huge play. Solis would eventually come around to score on an ISU fielding error to make the score, 6-4. Sacramento State would later load the bases in the inning with two outs when Rasmussen hit a sinking liner that looked like a sure hit, but right fielder Molly Nutt made a nice running catch near the foul line to end the inning.

ISU tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh to increase its lead to 7-4. In the Hornets' final at-bat, Hinton led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to center field, but the Hornets could not advance a runner past first base against Ames who recorded her second save of the year.

Sophie Slagle (14-9) got the win for Idaho State, allowing four runs (three earned) and five hits over 5.2 innings. Three Hornet pitchers threw in today's game, and it was Corr (5-4) that got the loss despite allowing just three hits and three runs in five innings. Kaitlyn Yerby faced the first two batters of the sixth inning before being replaced by Celina Matthias who threw the final two innings. It was Matthias that had to leave yesterday's game against Montana after taking a line drive off her right knee.

The Hornets finished with just six hits, and Papez had the lone multi-hit game for the Hornets, finishing 2-for-3 with an RBI. Margulies scored two runs, and had a walk, homer, and finished her career by reaching base safely in 27 consecutive games.

Today marked the final games in the careers of Sacramento State fourth-year seniors Solis, Papez and Yerby, and third-year senior Margulies. Solis finishes her career among the top five leaders in Sacramento State's Div. I era record book in walks (3rd with 60), doubles (tied for fourth with 36) and on-base percentage (5th at .409). Also among Sacramento State's career leaders, Margulies is first in batting average (.386), second in on-base percentage (.459), third in slugging percentage (.537) and RBIs (94), sixth in walks (56) and tied for eighth in home runs (11).