On Saturday, #2 Stanford softball blew the doors off Arizona State by a final score of 14-0 in five innings. Stanford senior Regan Krause (12-2) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while Arizona State graduate student Marissa Schuld (4-6) was the losing pitcher for the Sun Devils in a starting role. Stanford graduate student outfielder Kaitlyn Lim scored three runs for the Cardinal and also had two RBIs. Stanford improves to 30-6 overall and 10-1 in the Pac-12, taking the first two games of the series. Arizona State falls to 18-17 overall and 2-9 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Arizona State at Stanford-Saturday, April 6th
“Yesterday we put up four [runs], but I think we hit three that off the bat I thought were out and they made great plays at the wall, so four yesterday, could have easily been eight or nine,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “So I thought we had good at bats yesterday, obviously again good at bats today, and we did a good job making the pitcher come in the zone. Taking the freebies and then making her pay. So, good at bats up and down the lineup with runners on.”
After defeating Arizona State 4-0 on Friday, Stanford decided to play like they had their amplifiers all the way up to 11. In the bottom of the 1st inning, they scored two runs thanks to an RBI single from Caelan Koch and Jade Berry getting walked with the bases loaded to bring home Koch. They were at a level of maybe five on the amplifier scale at this point.
Where the Cardinal turned things up to 11 was in the bottom of the 2nd inning when they scored nine runs to lead 11-0. The highlight of this inning was back-to-back two-RBI doubles from River Mahler and Kaitlyn Lim, giving the Cardinal four of the nine runs that they scored. The other five runs came from an RBI single from Koch, Kyra Chan and Jade Berry getting walked with the bases loaded, an RBI double from Taryn Kern to bring Lim home, and Lim scoring on a passed ball with Aly Kaneshiro at the plate. When the inning finally ended, Arizona State was beyond deflated.
“I think that’s up to the hitters just to continue to put together good at bats,” Allister said. “And just to stay in compete mode and continue to put together good at bats. But it was great to get some people some at bats today that have been putting together some good practices and Cam getting the big hit, Ellee getting some good barrel on the ball to left field, and then Allison gets some good some good barrel on the ball to left field. It was great to see them take advantage of those opportunities. It was a good team win.”
“It’s just so fun,” Lim said of scoring all those runs. “Especially when people getting subbed into play and them succeeding and doing well. It’s just so fun to celebrate everybody’s successes and just to see everyone do well…I think knowing that the pitchers had to attack the zone. Because I think we were getting a lot of walks.
“So just making the pitchers come to us and really attacking the pitches that we wanted to attack. So when we did put the ball in play, they were hard hits and then we were taking our walks, taking our freebies, and I think it was a successful day to play, seeing the ball, making decisions, everything like that.”
And then for good measure, Stanford added three runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning as Camryn Carmouche hit a two-RBI single with the bases loaded to bring home Berry and Chan after which Ava Gall reached first base on an error as Lim scored while Carmouche advanced to third base. Kaneshiro would pop up to end the bottom of the inning. It was a 14-0 lead for Stanford.
Stanford would not score any more runs the rest of the game, but that didn’t matter as Arizona State never got on the board. As a result, the game was called in five innings due to the mercy rule. It was one-way traffic for the Cardinal from the very beginning. 14 runs on nine hits is really good efficiency.
“We made them come in the zone,” Allister said. “And when you make pitchers compete in the zone, your success rates go up and take the freebies when they give them to you. So, I thought we did a good job of zoning in.”
While the hitting was amazing for Stanford, the pitching was also outstanding. Krause pitched 3.0 shutout innings without giving up a single hit. She was dominant from the very beginning. In the final two innings, freshman Alyssa Houston came in and only gave up one hit. Just all-around, an amazing game for the Cardinal both offensively and defensively.
“I was just letting myself throw my best pitches,” Krause said. “I think in the last week or so I’ve gotten away from that. So, I just went out there and let it fly…I can’t give my secrets away, but it’s working!”
“Well Regan’s start was unbelievable,” Allister said of Krause. “I just thought she was competitive, she was aggressive, and just set an excellent tone in her first inning and then obviously Alyssa coming in and shutting the door and getting back out there after a couple of tougher outings and getting out there and having a really good outing. It was great to get her back out there. The two of them threw a good game.”
A big part of Stanford’s pitching success is the calming presence of Aly Kaneshiro at catcher. Krause and Kaneshiro are roommates and they’ve developed a really close relationship that helps them bring out the best in each other.
“She’s one of my best friends off the field,” Krause said of Kaneshiro. “We are roommates. So, I look at her every night before I go to bed. Our beds face each other. And so yeah, I think she’s just like a shoulder for me to lean on in real life and I think that really translates onto the field.”
As Stanford continues on their dominant run, they really are beating teams both with their bats and with their pitching. While their pitching is still their bread and butter, they do seem to have better hitting than they did a season ago. That should put the entire nation on notice.
“That was awesome,” Krause said of the run support she got. “You know it’s a pretty good sign when you have to go warm up mid-inning. So, I like the nine run innings. Those are pretty awesome.”
“I think so,” Lim said when asked if she feels the offense is flowing better. “It could be off and on, but I think we’re having productive at bats and we’re having clutch hitting at clutch times, which I think helps a lot. And just the freshmen and the transfers. Everyone is just performing well and helping the team out and doing whatever they can to help us win.”
After the game, Stanford players lined up to sign autographs on a table. There was a big crowd in attendance and lots of fans were eager to get something signed after the game. Some members of the football team and other sports came by to show their support. One fan even had Kaitlyn Lim sign one of their Crocs. That kind of support from their fans means a lot to the team and is something that doesn’t go unnoticed.
“So, my freshman year our stands were never this crowded,” Lim said. “And so, seeing the program evolve to having this many kids and this many fans want to stay after the game and get signatures from all the players, I think it’s just so awesome to see. And we love giving back to the girls and the families who watch us and want us to succeed. So we’re always down for it. It’s super awesome to see all the girls super excited to get our signatures and stuff.”
Up next for Stanford is game three against Arizona State on Sunday. That will begin at 1:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
“We talked about a couple things out there,” Allister said looking ahead to Sunday. “One was don’t for a second do anything but draw a lot of confidence from this and celebrate it. I think it can be a trap at times when you have a lot of success. You start to take it for granted and not celebrate it the way you should and we’re gonna try to avoid that. We’re gonna feel really good about the result today, feel really good about taking our fourth straight Pac-12 series, but know that the work is not done. So we gotta show up ready to go tomorrow.”
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