With the victories, Sacramento State has won five of its last six games while improving to 7-3 this season. The Hornets have won six-straight games over Nevada dating back to last season and improved to 10-2 all-time against the Wolf Pack. Over the last seven years, the Hornets have started the season winning at least seven of their first 10 games only one other time (the 2003 squad also began 7-3). Nevada dropped to 1-7 with the losses.

In the second game, Cinque (3-1) continued her recent dominance as the Sacramento City College transfer threw the first shutout of her Sacramento State career. Cinque struck out four while walking no batters over seven innings. The Sacramento native has now gone 21-consecutive innings (spanning four games) without allowing an earned run.

The Hornets scored all three runs in the fifth inning as freshman Hilary Johnson’s RBI-single, junior Lindy Winkler’s RBI-double and senior Lesley Mayhorn’s RBI-groundout accounted for all three runs. Johnson finished the game 1-for-2 with an RBI in her first two at-bats of the season. Senior Amy Hillel led all Hornets with two hits during the game and was narrowly thrown out at first base attempting to achieve her first three-hit game of the season.

In the first game, Sacramento State took advantage of two errors from Nevada second baseman Kristin Stith to score two unearned runs and eventually win, 2-1. Ferguson, who lowered her season ERA to a minuscule 0.62 and improved to 4-1 this season, escaped trouble throughout the game, allowing at least one hit in five of the seven innings. The senior’s only blemish during the game was allowing a fifth-inning solo home run to Kari Stockstill.

The Hornets got on the board in the fourth inning after Teri Ann Caoagan’s two-out single scored Lesley Mayhorn with the game’s first run. Mayhorn reached base on Stith’s first error and was pushed to second on a sacrifice bunt by Erin Coyne before finally coming around to score. Caoagan continued to produce in the clutch as the freshman walk-on is now hitting a team-high .444 (4-for-9) with runners in scoring position and .375 (3-for-8) with two outs.

After Stockstill’s first home run of the season tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fifth, Sacramento State pushed the eventual game-winning run across in the bottom of the inning. With Gloria Toledo on second base and two outs, Winkler grounded to Stith who bobbled the ball to keep the inning alive. Mayhorn, who had an RBI in both games, followed with an RBI-single to score Toledo.

Ferguson allowed just a two-out single in the sixth inning and retired the side in order in the seventh to complete the Hornets’ victory.

Sacramento State returns to action on Friday-Sunday, Feb. 25-27, as the team participates in the Stanford Invitational. The Hornets face UAB and Auburn on Friday, UC Davis and Texas Tech on Saturday, and conclude the tournament against fifth-ranked Stanford on Sunday.