SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Santa Clara softball dropped a midweek game at Sacramento State on Tuesday afternoon. The Broncos lost to the Hornets 9-0 in five innings.

The game was close after three and a half innings, with Sacramento State (19-15) on top 1-0. Santa Clara (7-31) had at least one base runner in three of its first four innings.

In the bottom of the fourth, however, an error opened the floodgates for the Hornet offense en route to an eight-run inning.

McCall James (3-15) went 3 2/3 innings in the start while getting the loss. She allowed seven unearned runs on seven hits.

A lead off double in the fateful fourth looked like it would be harmless after James got the next two outs via fly balls to right. The error by second baseman Geenamarie Bonilla started a string of 11 consecutive Sacramento State runners to reach base.

Celina Matthias (12-9) went the distance and picked up the win for the Hornets. She allowed just four hits and struck out eight.

Zamari Hinton and Sasha Margulies both collected two hits with Hinton scores two runs and collecting an RBI and Margulies scoring a run and knocking one in.

Cassandra Padilla, Justine Garner, Morgan Modesto, and Bonilla each picked up one hit to account for the Bronco offense.

Santa Clara returns to action tomorrow at home as the Broncos take on Cal at 4 p.m.