PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico -- The Hornets combined for four hits and a run over two games on the way to a pair of losses on the first day of the Puerto Vallarta Challenge on Thursday. The Hornets dropped the first game to North Dakota State, 4-1, before falling in the nightcap to 11th-ranked Tennessee, 11-0, in five innings.
Today marked the first of the three-day tournament for Sacramento State as the team will play Kansas tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT, and Southern Illinois on Saturday at 8 a.m. PT. This year marks the second time the team has played in Puerto Vallarta as the Hornets also appeared at the event during the 2019 season.
vs. North Dakota State
Sacramento State pitcher
Marissa Bertuccio and North Dakota State's Paige Vargas were locked in a pitchers duel, before the Bison broke through with three runs in the fifth. The score had been tied at 1-1 after
Nikki Barboza's two-out, RBI-single in the top of the fifth scored pinch runner
Kennedy Echols.
Vargas did not allow a hit the first four innings before the Hornets strung together hits in the fifth from
Carley Morfey,
Alexis Parish and Barboza. Those proved to be the Hornets' only hits of the contest. The big blow of the game was a two-run homer from NDSU's Emilee Buringa that broke the 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fifth.
Marissa Bertuccio worked the first five innings, before
Caroline Evans pitched the sixth in relief. After starting the first 126 games of her career at third base,
Lewa Day started both games today at first base.
Lexie Webb missed today's game with injury, and is out indefinitely.
vs. Tennessee
The Volunteers, currently ranked 11th in the nation in the NFCA top 25 poll and eighth in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll, pounded out 11 runs and nine hits over five innings against three Sacramento State pitchers. Six of those nine hits were doubles as Tennessee scored seven times in the second inning, and four more in the fifth.
Sacramento State's lone hit came from Parish who finished 1-for-1 with a walk. In the circle, the Hornets used
Kelsey Alcantara (1.1 ip),
Savannah Wahl (1.2 ip) and
Caroline Evans (2.0 ip). Wahl allowed just one hit and one walk without a run during her 1.2 innings of relief.