• The Hornets put together a successful first week of the season that saw the Hornets post a 3-1 record at the three-day NorCal Kickoff. That included victories over Saint Mary's, Utah Valley and San Jose State. Both the Utah Valley and Saint Mary's wins were five-inning mercy rules.
• Sacramento State will now embark upon a season-long nine-game road trip that begins with this week's Hawaii Spring Fling in which the Hornets play six games over three days stretching from Thursday through Saturday.
• The Hornets play twice each day. Thursday: vs Utah Tech at 12:30 pm PT, and CSU Bakersfield at 3 pm PT. Friday: vs Western Illinois at 12:30 pm PT, and CSU Bakersfield at 5:30 pm PT. Saturday: vs Utah Tech at 5 p.m. PT, and at Hawaii at 7:30 p.m. PT.
• Live stats will be available for all six games, but none of the games will have a video stream.
• This will be the Hornets' first trip to Hawaii since competing at the 2017 Paradise Classic in Honolulu. The Hornets went 2-2 at that three-day tournament, beating both Boise State and UAB, while falling to Oregon State and Hawaii.
• Through four games, the Hornets are batting .314 (27-for-86) with 11 extra base hits (six doubles, a triple and four homers), 18 RBIs, a .547 slugging percentage and .410 on-base percentage.
• The pitching has also been impressive. The Hornets have used five pitchers in four games, and the staff has a 2.23 ERA with 30 strikeouts over 22.0 innings. Leading the way has been
Caroline Evans (2-0, 0.64 ERA, 18 K in 11.0 IP) and
Kennedie Magorian (1-0 with a 0.00 ERA, 6 K in 5.0 IP).
• On Monday, junior catcher
Katie Marsh and senior left-hander
Caroline Evans swept the Big Sky Conference's Player and Pitcher of the Week awards, respectively.
• Marsh had three multiple-hit games and finished the week batting .667 (7-for-11) with four runs, five extra base hits (2 doubles, 1 triple, 2 homers), five RBIs and a 1.545 slugging percentage. She homered in each of the first two games of the season, had an extra base hit in three games, and defensively, committed zero errors while throwing out a runner attempting to steal.
• Evans was 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA in appearances against Saint Mary's and San Jose State. In 11.0 innings, she allowed just six hits and two runs (one earned) with three walks and 18 strikeouts. That breaks down to a 6-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio, and her 18 strikeouts are currently the 19th best mark in the country. She struck out a career-high 10 batters in the win over Saint Mary's, and had a streak of 11 consecutive batters retired in both games.
• Dating back to last season,
Andrea Lira has a 12-game hitting streak. She hit safely in each of the final eight games last season, and has a hit in the first four game this year. During that 12-game stretch, Lira is batting .611 (22-for-36) with 11 runs, seven doubles, three homers and 12 RBIs.
• Each of the Hornets' last three games have resulted in five-inning mercy rules. That includes a 9-1 victory over Utah Valley, a 10-1 loss to Boise State, and an 8-0 win over San Jose State.
• Left fielder
Lafulafu Malepeai made her Hornet debut after missing all of last season with injury. A transfer from San Mateo JC, Malepeai started all four games, and hit safely in three of them. She finished the week 3-for-8 with a run, two stolen bases, and a .444 on-base percentage.
• In a streak that dates back to her freshman season, shortstop
Gwen Ludwig has started each of the Hornets' last 116 games. She started each of the final 17 games as freshman, all 47 games as a sophomore, and all 48 games last season as a junior. Ludwig is a career .324 hitter.
• In her Hornet debut after transferring from San Mateo JC, junior right-hander
Kennedie Magorian was nearly unhittable. In a five-inning mercy rule victory over Utah Valley, the junior allowed just one hit with six strikeouts over five innings. Her only blemish was a Wolverine infield single with one out in the fourth. Utah Valley hit just one ball out of the infield the entire game.
• Sacramento State finished last season 28-20 and 7-4 in the Big Sky. The Hornets finished in a tie for second in the final league standings. They were selected fourth in the Big Sky preseason poll, primarily because over 50 percent of the roster is brand new - 26 players (14 newcomers).
