PREVIEW
• Sacramento State (13-12) resumes its seven-game homestand this weekend when the Hornets welcome Loyola Marymount (11-17) to Shea Stadium for a three-game series.
• The Hornets and Lions will play a doubleheader Saturday at noon, followed by a single game Sunday at 11 a.m. All three games will stream on ESPN+.
• Sacramento State and Loyola Marymount were rivals in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference from 2003-12. The two teams consistently finished among the top three in the conference, and Loyola Marymount was the Hornets' biggest rival in that league. Sacramento State is 24-28 all-time against the Lions.
• Sacramento State is coming off a 10-2 win on Tuesday over Columbia that was stopped after five innings. That was the first leg of a seven-game homestand that will see the Hornets open Big Sky Conference play next week at home vs. Idaho State.
• The Columbia win snapped a season-high four-game losing streak, but that four-game stretch was a gauntlet of opponents that included UCLA (twice), Cal and San Diego State.
• On Tuesday, senior infielder and team captain
Gwen Ludwig returned after missing nine games to injury. Ludwig finished with a hit, run and two stolen bases. She now has 43 career stolen bases, which ties her for the program's all-time career record.
Haley Hanson set the record last season as a senior.
• Tuesday's five-inning game continued a remarkable trend for the Hornets. The team continues to find itself in games stopped because of the eight-run mercy rule. In 25 games, 12 have ended early because of the mercy rule, and the Hornets are 8-4 in those outcomes.
• Sacramento State has enjoyed early success on the strength of its offense, which might end up being the best offense in program history by season's end. The Hornets are batting .315, averaging 6.0 runs per game, and already have 33 home runs.
• The Hornets rank among the top 30 teams in the nation in multiple categories, including homers per game (22nd, 1.32), slugging percentage (27th, .554) and doubles per game (28th, 1.68).
• Seven starters are hitting above .300, and six of those above .330. That includes
Madison Evers-Lyles (.410),
Andrea Lira (.385),
Katie Marsh (.377),
Lafulafu Malepeai (.357),
Gwen Ludwig (.349),
Shannon Garcia (.333) and
Nikki Barboza (.309). This list doesn't even count
Alexa Carino (.321) who has six starts this year, including five of the last six games.
• To say the Hornet coaching staff had a nice recruiting year would be an understatement. Of those eight players mentioned above, four are in their first active seasons with the program, including true freshmen Evers-Lyles, Garcia and Carino.
• Speaking of Evers-Lyles, she is currently riding an 11-game hitting streak - the longest by a Hornet since Leandra Coronado had an 11-gamer in 2023. Should Evers-Lyles get to 12, it would be the longest by a Hornet since 2019. And if she gets to 13, the longest since both Zamari Hinton (21) and Suzy Brookshire (17) had lengthy streaks in 2018.
• Lira has been a hitting machine, having hit safely in 20 of the Hornets' 25 games. That includes hitting streaks of eight, six, and four games this season. She is currently riding a six-game streak.
• The Hornets' 33 home runs are already 10 more than all of last season, and inching closer to the school record of 55, set in 2022. Seven different players have multiple homers, and four have at least five - Evers-Lyles (6), Lira (6), Marsh (5) and Barboza (5).
• Sacramento State's pitching staff has compiled a 4.62 ERA thus far. However, if you take out the recent four-game stretch of extremely tough opposition (UCLA 2x, Cal, San Diego State), the staff has a very respectable 3.53 ERA. Staff ace
Caroline Evans has pitched just once in the last eight games while dealing with a nagging injury.
• Lira is the only Hornet to start all 25 games. In addition, she is one of just two Hornets (Barboza) to play in all 25 contests.
