On Sunday, #8 Stanford softball fell to #11 Washington on Senior Day by a final score of 8-0 in six innings played. Washington junior Lindsay Lopez (11-2) was the winning pitcher for the Huskies in a starting role while Stanford freshman NiJaree Canady (14-1) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role. Washington improves to 37-11 overall and 16-8 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 39-12 overall and 14-10 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Washington at Stanford-Sunday, May 7
This one was all Huskies all the way. The Huskies had 11 hits while Stanford had just one. The Huskies scored eight runs while the Cardinal were shut out for the second straight game. After a competitive first two games, the Huskies turned on the jets in game three to win the series with command.
After two scoreless innings, Washington finally got on the board in the top of the 3rd. With one out, Baylee Klingler got hit by a pitch after which Sami Reynolds successfully executed a bunt to get to first base and advance Klingler to second base. With two outs, Kelley Lynch hit a three-run dinger to left center to make it a 3-0 lead for the Huskies. Jadelyn Allchin then struck out swinging to end the top of the inning.
In the 4th inning, neither team scored. However, Stanford did make a pitching change with two outs and the bases loaded as Canady was taken out of the circle and replaced by Alana Vawter. Vawter struck out Reynolds to keep it a 3-0 game.
In the top of the 5th inning, Washington added four more runs. Madison Huskey got walked to open things up after which Lynch singled through the left side to advance Huskey to second base. Allchin then grounded out to second base, advancing both runners to second and third. Megan Vandegrift then hit a single bunt to load up the bases as no runners came home. SilentRain Espinoza then grounded out to short stop to bring home Huskey and advance the other runners one base. Rylee Holtorf then singled through the left side to bring home Lynch and advance Vandegrift to third base. This ended Vawter’s day in the circle as Regan Krause came in to pitch.
Krause walked Olivia Johnson, which advanced Holtorf to second base. Klingler then singled to second base to advance all runners, which resulted in Vandegrift scoring. Reynolds then reached first base on a fielding error as all runners advanced including Holtorf, who came home. Huskey then advanced to first base on a fielder’s choice as Reynolds was out at second base to end the top of the inning. 7-0 lead for the Huskies.
In the bottom of the 5th, the only batter to get on base for Stanford was Kaitlyn Lim, who was walked. The offensive struggles were real for the Cardinal.
In the top of the 6th, Washington added one more run as Vandegrift grounded out to third base with two outs to bring home Avery Hobson. 8-0 lead for the Huskies.
In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford failed to score any runs as Taylor Gindlesperger flied out to center field, Aly Kaneshiro flied out to right field, and Emily Young struck out looking. Rather than playing a 7th inning, the game was called as Washington had the game won via mercy rule. 8-0 would be the final in six innings as the Huskies took two out of three games to win the series.
For Stanford, this is not how they wanted Senior Day to go. Nobody wants to lose on Senior Day, but to get shut out and utterly dominated is especially disappointing. For the second straight game, Stanford’s bats were quiet and on top of that, their pitching came unglued.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this loss and look ahead to the inaugural Pac-12 tournament in Tucson, Arizona. Stanford is the four seed and will face the five seed Oregon on Thursday at 6:30 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks. Stanford took two out of three games at Oregon in the regular season.
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