• Sacramento State (27-17, 6-6) will play its final Big Sky Conference series of the season this week vs. Portland State (14-27, 4-8). The teams will play a doubleheader on Friday at noon, followed by a single game on Saturday at noon.
• Saturday is Senior Day, and four Hornet seniors -
Kennedie Bacon,
Faith Epperson,
Danyelle Leone and
Lafulafu Malepeai - will be honored prior to the game. The Senior Day ceremony will begin at approximately 11:46 a.m.
• Sacramento State does have three other seniors -
Jenna Birch,
Katie Marsh,
Andrea Lira - but each of those players are injured and will return next season. Marsh was hitting .370 with five home runs through 16 games when she was injured, and Lira hit .371 with 10 home runs a season ago, but has not played this year.
• Every game will be streamed on ESPN+ with Will Schilling on the call. Longtime Portland State play-by-play voice Teri Mariani will join Schilling on Saturday's broadcast.
• Either Idaho State (8-4) or Montana (8-4) will win this year's Big Sky regular season title as they play each other this week in Missoula. All six of the conference's teams qualify for the Big Sky Tournament (May 4-7 in Pocatello), and the top two seeds receive a first round bye.
• Second place and a bye is still in play for the Hornets, but they would need to sweep Portland State, Montana would have to lose its series to Idaho State, and Northern Colorado (6-6) would have to lose at least one game in their home series vs. Weber State (4-8).
• Sacramento State has been the No. 3 seed or higher at the Big Sky Tournament five straight years and 10 times overall (2014-18, 2021-25). The first year of Big Sky play was 2013.
• This week also marks the final games of 2026 at Shea Stadium, and the Hornets are 12-8 inside the friendly confines. That includes taking two of three against Montana two weeks ago.
• Sacramento State has dropped the first game of all four Big Sky series it has played, and has been outscored by a combined 11 runs in those contests.
• Portland State has won three of its last four games, and is coming off a series in which they took two of three games at home vs. Northern Colorado. The Vikings began the conference season with four straight losses, but have since gone 4-4 since.
• In one of its longest rivalries against any team, Sacramento State is 45-26 all-time vs. Portland State. That includes a 26-8 record at home. The two teams played four times a year ago, with the Hornets taking two of three in Portland, and then beating the Vikings at the Big Sky Tournament. That Big Sky Tourney game was played in Greeley and saw the Hornets win, 15-4, in five innings.
• Though Sacramento State's team ERA in Big Sky play is 5.04, the pitching staff's overall ERA of 3.00 ranks 29th in the nation. The Hornets had a 2.29 ERA in non-league play, but, uncharacteristically, have not been nearly as good in league. Part of that reason is the staff had trouble with the elevation at both Northern Colorado and Idaho State.
• All six pitchers on Sacramento State's staff have records above .500, and five of them have ERA's below a 3.50.
Alexa Ortiz (9-8, 3.06) and
Kennedie Bacon (9-6, 3.41) have both thrown over 90 innings, while
Danyelle Leone (4-2, 2.19) has thrown 64 innings, including 19 relief appearances.
•
Lafulafu Malepeai (.400),
Saskia Raab (.348) and
Madi Mendoza (.331) are the only Hornets to start all 44 games. Malepeai, who was recently selected to compete for a spot for the first-ever American Samoa National Team, had a 15-game hitting streak snapped last weekend. Her 15 homers are three shy of the school record (18), set by Suzy Brookshire in 2018.
• Mendoza has a six-game hitting streak (one shy of her career best), and her 106 assists are the 36th best mark in the country. During the hitting streak, she is batting .571 (12-for-21).
• Hornets are 25-5 when scoring at least three runs, and 19-3 when scoring first…the Hornets have scored a whopping 62 runs in the first inning (1.4 per game), and that amounts to 36 more runs than the next closest inning (second most is 26 scored in the 2nd)…Sacramento State is 22-2 when outhitting its opponent…the Hornets are 21-0 when leading after six innings.
