On Sunday, No. 16 Stanford softball defeated No. 22 Virginia at Stanford Stadium by a final score of 2-0. Alyssa Houston (13-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while Savanah Henley (8-3) was the losing pitcher for the Cavaliers in a relief role. Stanford took the series 2-1 on Senior Day and improved to 34-10 overall and 12-8 in the ACC while Virginia fell to 35-15 overall and 14-9 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Virginia at Stanford-Sunday, April 27th
“Thrilled,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said of the win. “I think one, it’s a big series win, you know. Us and Virginia are right next to each other in the ACC standings, so that’s a huge win over a really good opponent and a huge win on a weekend where things were hard and we weren’t necessarily feeling great about ourselves offensively and clicking, but like to come through and stay tough and gritty and find a way to get a W and to win the series was a big deal. I think you know, Kylie and Alyssa throwing a combined shutout today on day three after the opposing team had seen them a fair amount. Very very proud of them.”
The only two runs that were scored came in the bottom of the 4th inning as River Mahler singled to advance Emily Jones to third base and bring Taryn Kern home with no outs. Jade Berry then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Jones. Stanford actually had a chance to add even more runs in the inning, but they were unable to do so.
“Yeah for sure, you know, I think it’s great,” Alister said of pulling out a low scoring win. “Obviously we’ve relied on our offense a lot this year and for the pitching staff to come through the way the pitching staff did today, defense to come through the way they did today, you know, we needed it, and on any given day you need two of the three. Give yourself a chance to win and the pitching staff was huge today.”
This game was truly a pitchers’ duel as each team only had two hits all game long. Ironically, Virginia’s best chance to score came in the top of the 4th inning as they had runners on second and third base with two outs. Kylie Chung was pitching for Stanford to start the top of the 4th inning, but Houston had to come back in to close the door, which she did. After giving up a passed ball to advance the runners to second and third, Houston struck out Jade Hylton to end the top of the inning.
In the top of the 7th inning, Houston gave up a walk, but forced a flyout and then a double play to end the game. Houston finished with five strikeouts in the 5.1 innings that she pitched.
“Just trusting myself,” Houston said of the key to her performance. “I feel like yesterday I just kind of got away from trusting myself and today just going out and just trusting what calls were being made and just trusting what I’m throwing and just be confident in myself and I think that’s what kind of helped me today.”
“Yeah, she was great,” Allister said of Houston. “I thought she came in and got us out of a jam there whatever inning it might have been. The fourth maybe? You know, with their best hitter up and got us back in the dugout and then just continued to put up zeroes. So, the way you get better in those situations is to be put in those situations and being out there in pressure situations and competing against good teams is exactly what she needs and she’s doing a good job.”
Overall, this was a nice win for Stanford. Virginia is a really good team. To take two out of three against them has to feel good. Especially since they did it on Senior Day, honoring Allie Clements, Kylie Chung, Caelan Koch, Dani Hayes, Camryn Carmouche, and Ella Nadeau.
“I think it’s just phenomenal,” Houston said of the win. “They’re a phenomenal team. Like a lot of good hitters, pitching is really good, I think that was just a really good team win right there. Just sticking in the fight. This weekend we probably didn’t play exceptional and there were some things that we could have cleaned up and instances and stuff. But I feel like as a team today, just coming out and just being gritty and just diving into what we are doing good and just being in the successes instead of the failures is what really allowed us to win tonight…We always talk about how we want to win every senior day and just I feel like this just meant so much because the seniors have just, they are a phenomenal class and I just like, so many good memories and just allowing them to win on this day is just so, it’s just so fun and makes it even better.”
Stanford went on to defeat Santa Clara on Wednesday at home by a final score of 10-2. Alyssa Houston improved to 14-1 on the season while Stanford is now 35-10 overall. Kyra Chan was the top offensive player for the Cardinal going 2-4 for four RBIs. Up next, Stanford will take on Boston College on the road for a three-game series to close out ACC regular season play before the ACC tournament. Game one will be on Friday at 1:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, I think we just saw we need to work to get ourselves going a little bit,” Allister said of what she wants to see from her team during this final regular season push. “Gain a little momentum offensively. You know, I think we talked about it a little bit today in pregame. You look at the numbers we’ve been putting up all year, I think we’re in the top three of most of the offensive categories in the country right now.
“This is kind of the first time that offensively, it’s felt just a little bit hard and you know we play a sport where that happens and we need to not give into frustration and instead maintain our confidence, stick to the work that we’ve been doing, and just get back to it. So, I think that’s the biggest thing. Staying within ourselves offensively, gain confidence from the performance of the pitching staff today, and continue to find a way to get better.”
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