PORTLAND -- Sacramento State continued its dominance of the Big Sky Conference with a doubleheader sweep of Portland State on Friday afternoon at Faber Field. The Hornets run ruled the Vikings in five innings, 9-0, in the opener before taking the nightcap, 4-1.

Sacramento State and Portland State entered the day as the top two teams in the Big Sky. In fact, Portland State sat just one game back of the Hornets in the standings. But the Hornets dismantled the Vikings today, outscoring PSU by a 13-1 margin and outhitting the Viks, 19-4.

Sacramento State improved to 25-14 overall and 9-2 in the Big Sky while the Vikings fell to 15-21 and 6-5 in league play. The two teams will close their three game series tomorrow at noon. Sacramento State has now won the series against all four conference opponents it has faced thus far.

The Hornets are getting very close to securing a Big Sky regular season title. With just four conference games to play, Sacramento State sits all alone in first place, comfortably ahead of Portland State (6-5), Northern Colorado (4-5), Idaho State (3-4) and Weber State (2-4). The Hornets could clinch the title tomorrow, but would need a win over Portland State, two losses by Idaho State against Montana, and Weber State winning one game or less tomorrow vs Northern Colorado.

Two huge milestones were achieved today. Marissa Bertuccio threw a no-hitter in the first game - the second of her remarkable career. And Lewa Day homered in the second game, tying the program record with 44 career home runs.

Bertuccio (14-6, 1.55 ERA) was brilliant yet again, allowing no hits and no walks with four strikeouts in five innings. The game was stopped after five innings because of the run rule. Bertuccio faced just one batter over the minimum with her lone blemish a hit batter in the second inning. She threw just 66 pitches, and 44 of those were strikes. The right-hander is now a dominant 6-0 with a 0.34 ERA in conference play this season. She became the eighth Sacramento State pitcher to register multiple no-hitters during the program's Div. I era (1990-pres.).

In the nightcap, Day's solo home run opened the scoring, and marked the 44th round tripper of her career. Those 44 homers tied the program record, a mark she now shares with former Hornet Suzy Brookshire. The 44 is also tied for the third best mark in Big Sky history. One of the best players in program history, Day is averaging a remarkable one home run every 10.3 at-bats during her career, and now owns a .352 career batting average.

As a team, the Hornets were absolutely dominant today. Sacramento State pitchers Bertuccio and Caroline Evans combined for a 0.00 ERA and allowed just four hits and one unearned run in 12.0 innings. Offensively, Portland State hit just .100 (4-for-40) with just one extra base hit and five total bases.

Sacramento State's bats combined for a .358 batting average (19-for-53) with a .424 on-base percentage, 13 runs, 19 hits, five doubles, a homer and 13 RBIs in 12 innings. Both Evans and Gwen Ludwig finished the day with four hits, while Jada Walker had three, and both Katie Marsh and Alexis Parish finished with two.

Walker hit safely in both games and now owns a five-game hitting streak. Carley Morfey had a three-run double in the second game that gave the Hornets more than enough cushion for Evans, who was dominant in the circle and at the plate. Not only did she throw a complete game while allowing just four hits and one unearned run in the nightcap, Evans finished the day 4-for-6 at the plate with three doubles, seven total bases and a pair of RBIs. In fact, Evans' seven total bases were more than the entire Portland State team.

In the opener, Sacramento State used a massive third inning that included eight runs, eight hits and 12 batters sent to the plate.

The Hornets and Vikings finish the series tomorrow with a single game at noon. Sacramento State's final three-game Big Sky series will come next week at home vs. Idaho State.