SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Thunderbird softball team played two games of their three-game series against Sacramento State on Friday, and will look to bounce back on Saturday after falling to the Hornets in both games.

SUU (7-34, 3-8 Big Sky) and CSUS (21-15, 10-1 Big Sky) played a close game to start the day, as the Hornets prevailed 3-0. The second game of the day weighed heavily in the Hornet's favor, as they knocked off SUU 7-0.

“Today we needed to make an offensive adjustment and we simply didn't,” SUU head coach Tom Gray said. “With the wind blowing hard in we continued to try to drive the ball out of the park.”  

Sacramento State got on the board early, putting up three runs in the bottom of the first. However, after that point SUU's Jordan Theurer pitched four scoreless innings before only giving up one more run in the bottom of the sixth to hold the Hornets to only three runs.

Unfortunately for the Thunderbirds, they were not able to put any runs of their own up on the board, leading to a 3-0 defeat.

Theurer threw 66 strikes out of 98 pitches, and only allowed five hits in six innings of work with one strikeout. As a team the Thunderbirds only had three hits on the day, as CSUS's Celina Matthias pitched seven scoreless innings.

In the second game the T-Birds fell behind early, as the Hornets put up two runs in the bottom of the first and three more in the bottom of the second.

As the Thunderbirds struggled to gain momentum, the Hornets put up two more runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Matthias pitched the second game, and held the Thunderbirds scoreless for the second time in one day en route to CSUS winning 7-0.

The Hornets will remain at the top of the conference standings after Friday's results.

The Thunderbirds and Hornets will wrap up their series tomorrow, with game three scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.