STOCKTON, Calif. — True freshman Suzy Brookshire's home run with two outs in the seventh inning highlighted Sacramento State's doubleheader split at Pacific in the third and final day of the Libby Matson Softball Tournament at Bill Simoni Field. The Hornets won the first game, 2-1, before falling in the nightcap by a 4-3 score.

In the opener, the Hornets were down to their last out and trailing, 1-0, when Brookshire connected on the first pitch she saw for a homer over the left-center field wall. Sacramento State would later score a run in the eighth inning to win, 2-1. The home run for Brookshire was her second in as many days and she has now hit safely in seven of the nine games she has played.

With the split, Sacramento State concluded the three-day, five-game tournament in Stockton with a 2-3 record. That included splitting a pair of games against CSUN, losing to Seattle and splitting two with Pacific (6-7). The Hornets moved their season record to 4-6, and five of the last six games have been decided by two runs or less.

Brookshire finished the tournament batting .385 (5-for-13) with two home runs and a .467 on-base percentage. Shortstop Sydney Rasmussen hit .455 (5-for-11) with four runs scored, a double, a triple, two home runs, four walks and a stolen base. She also had a .647 on-base percentage and a massive 1.273 slugging percentage. Sacramento State's pitching staff held the opposition to just a .206 batting average, but yielded 19 runs over 35.0 innings.

GAME 1

Sacramento State's Taylor Tessier and Pacific's Marissa Young were locked in a pitchers duel, as the game remained scoreless through five innings. Pacific, however, scored its first run in the sixth after leading off the inning with back-to-back walks. The first walk chased Tessier in favor of reliever Savanna Corr. After Corr walked her first batter to put runners at first and second with no outs, Pacific got a bunt single and later a fielding error allowed the Tigers to score their first run. Pacific still had the bases loaded and no outs after scoring the run, but Corr worked her way out of the jam without any further damage.

Despite Young allowing just two hits with no walks with 88 pitches over 6.0 innings, Pacific decided to put in reliever Megan Walters to begin the seventh inning. After retiring both Tiffany Moore and Shelby Johnston, Brookshire ended the shutout bid with a shot that went well over the left-center field wall.

The tiebreaker rule went into effect to begin the eighth inning, and Nene Alas was put on second to begin the Hornets' top of the inning. She was sacrificed to third base by Jade Arslanian, and, after Walters got pinch hitter Mo Spieth to strike out, a passed ball charged to catcher Rachel Sellers allowed Alas to score from third base. Corr retired the side in order in the eighth to pick up her first win of the season.

Corr (1-0) allowed just one hit in three shutout innings of relief. Tessier threw well, going the first five innings while allowing just two hits and one run with five strikeouts. Walters (0-2) got the loss, allowing one hit and two runs (one earned) over two innings.

The two teams combined for just six hits (three apiece), but Pacific did strand 11 runners on base while failing to take advantage of six walks issued by Sacramento State's pitchers. Moore had her five-game hitting streak snapped after going 0-for-3.

GAME 2

The lead switched hands three times, but a two-run single in the fourth inning by Cassidy Gustafson proved to be the game-winning hit in Pacific's 4-3 victory.

Sacramento State failed to score from third base with no outs on two occasions. Both of those situations came with Rasmussen at third base. In the first inning, with nobody down and runners at the corners with the 3-4-5 hitters coming up, Rasmussen broke for home when Pacific catcher Sellers made a slow throw back to pitcher Gustafson. But Gustafson immediately threw back to Sellers who applied the tag at the plate in time on a sliding Rasmussen. Perhaps the most damaging play came after Rasmussen led off the seventh with a triple that banged high off the center field fence. With nobody down, Zamari Hinton laid down a bunt, but Rasmussen was thrown out at the plate trying to score.

Pacific opened the game's scoring with a two-run homer in the first inning from Sydney Lahners. The Hornets chopped that lead in half when Rasmussen, who opened the inning with a walk, was sacrificed to third and came around to score on a Pacific throwing error.

The Hornets took the lead, 3-2, in the fourth when pinch hitter Sydnee Strong cranked a one-out, two-run double to center field that scored both Brookshire and Johnston. However, Pacific immediately answered in the bottom of the inning with Gustafson's two-run single.

Sacramento State had runners at first and second with two outs in the sixth, but couldn't score. And after the leadoff triple in the seventh was neutralized with Rasmussen thrown out at the plate, the Hornets would eventually get runners at first and second with two outs, but Pacific reliever Hailey Reed struck out Johnston on a 2-2 pitch to end the game.

Celina Matthias (2-3) took the loss for the loss for the Hornets, allowing four hits and four runs over three innings. True freshman reliever Danielle Sperry was impressive, allowing just one hit in three shutout innings. Gustafson (2-1) got the win, allowing three runs (two earned) and four hits in four innings. Reed earned her first save after throwing three innings of shutout relief.

Rasmussen reached base safely in all four plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with a double, triple, stolen base, walk and a hit-by-pitch. She was the only player from either team with a multiple-hit game as the two teams combined for just 11 hits. She has now reached base safely in five straight plate appearances going back to the first game of today's doubleheader.

Sacramento State returns to action next week for a game at UC Davis on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.