On Wednesday, No. 17 Stanford softball defeated Saint Mary’s 5-4 in a game that went deep into the night, finishing in the 10th inning. Kylie Chung (10-3) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role pitching 8.1 innings while striking out eight batters and giving up one earned run. Kyra Chan hit the game-winning RBI while also having a game-saving catch in right field. The losing pitcher for the Gaels was Odhi Vasquez (8-3) in a starting role, pitching all 9.1 innings while giving up just five hits after giving up four hits and four runs in the 1st inning. Vasquez pitched a career-high 188 pitches. Stanford improves 25-6 overall (8-4 in the ACC) while Saint Mary’s falls to 17-16 overall (0-0 in the WCC).
BOX SCORE: Saint Mary’s at Stanford-Wednesday, April 2nd
“Yeah, I’m really proud of them,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “Like, these are really easy games to lose. And I think like, you know, it had that feeling coming down the stretch and we found a way to win a ball game and we played a crazy game. So, finding a way to win games that go like this, it’s a big deal.”
In the top of the 1st inning, Saint Mary’s got the bases loaded with two outs. Fortunately for Stanford, Kylie Chung was able to strike out the next batter to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Stanford added four runs to go up 4-0. Taryn Kern got walked after which Emily Jones hit a bunt single to advance Kern to second base before Kern reached third base thanks to a throwing error from Vasquez. Jones would steal second base while River Mahler struck out. Next, Joie Economides singled to right center, bringing in Jones and Kern. Kyra Chan then singled to advance Economides to second base. Allie Clements then hit a double to bring home Chan and Economides for the third and fourth runs. Caelan Koch grounded out to end the inning.
To the Gaels’ credit, they did not let the 0-4 hole deter them. In the top of the 5th inning, they finally got on the board as Zoe Prystajko was pitching for the Cardinal. With Camille Lara on second base, Alex Cutonilli hit a home run to right field, making it a 4-2 game. Prystajko wouldn’t allow any more runs the rest of the inning.
“They just made stuff happen, right?” Chan said of the Gaels. “They would put runners on base and then they would score them in. So, you know, they’re pretty efficient with their hits and their productivity. So, you know, they were in it all game. So, it’s pretty good. Good competition.”
In the top of the 6th inning, Saint Mary’s added one more run to make it 4-3. After Prystajko and Alyssa Houston collectively loaded up the bases with one out, Kylie Chung came back in to pitch for the Cardinal. Chung would force a ground out to make it two outs, but that brought home a run for the Gaels giving Lara an RBI. Chung then forced a fly out by Braxton Brown to end the top of the inning.
“You know, Kylie, she might even have on her glove ‘brave not perfect.’ And I think that’s kind of epitomizes what she’s done all year," Allister said of Chung. "She’s just battling her tail off out in the circle and doing whatever the team needs from her and just trying to get the next out.”
In the top of the 7th inning, the Gaels tied it up. With one out, Kiah Silva and Mia Zabat both got walked after which Jenavee Amador hit an RBI single to bring home Silva and advance Zabat to third base. Chung then forced back-to-back ground outs to keep it at 4-4. In the bottom of the 7th, Stanford was unable to score as nobody got on base. That kept it tied up, forcing the game into extra innings.
In the top of the 8th inning with two outs and Lara on second base, Cutonilli hit a ball into right field that nearly brought home Lara. Fortunately for the Cardinal, Chan was there to make a diving catch for the third out, keeping it tied up. In the bottom of the 8th, Stanford was unable to score as only Economides got on base. The game remained tied 4-4.
“I think our defense is great,” Chan said. “I think River also made plays at short and I just wanted to get us back in the dugout.”
In the top of the 9th inning, Chung only walked one batter and then in the top of the 10th after another scoreless inning, Chung didn’t allow anyone to get on base, keeping it tied 4-4 going into the bottom of the 10th.
“Shout out to my strength coach,” Chung said of pitching 8.1 innings. “Shout out to all the people, our support staff that push me. But I would just say, like, it’s probably been like four years worth of work to have that stamina. I’ve always prided myself on my ability to stay strong and push myself in the weight room and at conditioning and I think probably last year I wouldn’t have been able to do that. So just trying to push myself in the weight room and I feel like it’s an accumulation of a lot of hard work.”
In the bottom of the 10th, Stanford finally scored to win the game 5-4. With one out, Economides got walked on a wild pitch and advanced to second base thanks to the ball getting stuck behind the catcher and also the first baseman getting called for obstruction. Up next to the plate would be Chan, who hit the game-winning RBI single to bring Economides home. 5-4 was the final score as the Cardinal fended off a very pesky Gaels team.
“Well, I went up there and I just wanted to see a strike and hit something that would score Joie,” Chan said of her game-winning hit. “I think one thing is to not give into frustration. I think that with these type of pitchers, she’s a good pitcher, so we got to make sure that we’re really locked in and that we’re digging in and competing. She had good stuff, so the goal was just to not let her get off with a pitch over the plate and you know, just take advantage of strikes.”
“Save a run and probably saved the ball game on the catch in right field,” Allister said of Chan. “And then Kyra has been swinging a really good bat. She was great on the road trip. Really got some good swings off again today, squared the ball up a number of times. So, she’s playing well right now.”
For Stanford, this is a big win given they were coming off a three-game road sweep at Virginia Tech. All three of those games were one run losses, but even so, it can be easy for losing to become contagious. They were able to nip their losing skid in the bud and get back on track.
“Yeah, I think you saw a little bit of that play out kind of on some of our hitters’ faces,” Allister said of bouncing back. “You see a lot of frustration. You’d see a lot of trying harder and that doesn’t serve you in a sport that is as difficult as this one is. So, I think you saw a little bit of that play out, but we gotta get over that and get back into compete mode coming up this weekend.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely nice to have a good win,” Chan added. “But you know, those three games that we lost we definitely could have won them all. It was very close games. So I think we’re just staying in it and digging in and just competing. That’s all we could do.”
As for Saint Mary’s, this was obviously a disappointing outcome, but they battled hard and showed a lot of fight. They could have given up after getting down 0-4, but they stuck with things and were rewarded by sending the game into extra innings.
“That’s who they are,” Allister said of the Gaels. “We’ve known this for a long time. You know, they did the same thing last year at regionals. Looking the same and then came back and made a hell of game out of it. So, I think they’re scrappy, they’re competitive, they never think they’re out of it. They continue to put together good at-bats. You know, we got to eliminate the free passes. Any time you give a team 12 free passes they’re gonna take advantage of some of those. And I think probably three of those runs that scored were either walks or HBPs. So, we gotta cut that short and then we’ve gotta take advantage of the opportunities that we have earlier on. You know, we got a lot of runners on early on to kind of put that game away and need to have better at-bats in those situations.”
“In all four of my years here, they have never been an easy team to beat,” Chung added. “They’ve always been really scrappy. They’ve got great energy. They seem fired up and something I admire in their team is they never give up. They always try to put together their best at-bats. They’re always trying to give us their best. And so I think that there wasn’t a moment where that team didn’t think they could beat us. So I think their probably unwavering confidence is how they got back in that game.”
Up next for Stanford is a home series against No. 20 Clemson. Game one will be on Friday at 6:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be a really good one,” Allister said of the upcoming series against the Tigers. “With the way the ACC schedule kind of set up for us, you know, we’ve got a number of teams down the stretch who were all in regional finals last year, have been in super regionals, it’s going to be really good ball and that all starts with Clemson. So, we’re going to need to play good ball, but we’ll be ready.”
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), YouTube, & Blue Sky: @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
