On Sunday, No. 19 Stanford softball defeated Syracuse 9-0 (6 innings) to complete a 3-0 home sweep for the weekend series. Stanford freshman Zoe Prystajko was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role pitching 5.0 innings while Syracuse junior Madison Knight (6-3) was the losing pitcher for the Orange in a starting role. Stanford sophomore 3rd baseman Jade Berry was the top offensive performer for the Cardinal going 3-3 for five RBIs and two home runs. Stanford improves to 17-3 overall and 5-1 in the ACC while Syracuse falls to 16-6 overall and 0-3 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Syracuse at Stanford-Sunday, March 9th
“Yeah, I mean, coming out and getting an ACC sweep is amazing,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “Proud of the bats for coming out, putting up runs early and often and anytime we throw a shutout it means our pitching staff is doing a good job. So, good day.”
After two solid scoreless innings pitched by Zoe Prystajko, Stanford scored their first run in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Jade Berry got walked after which Kyra Chan hit a single to advance Berry to second base. Joie Economides then got walked to load up the bases. With one out, Madison Knight threw a wild pitch to advance all runners, resulting in Berry coming home. Stanford wouldn’t score any more runs the rest of the inning, making it a 1-0 game at the end of the inning.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Prystajko didn’t allow anyone to get on base, continuing her strong pitching performance. In the bottom of the 3rd, Stanford added two runs thanks to an RBI single from Jade Berry to bring home River Mahler and a single to left field by Economides to bring home Berry. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, making it a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the 4th inning, Prystajko gave up a single, but aside from that was solid, keeping it at 3-0. She just keeps getting better and better in her freshman season.
“It’s no different than what we talked about yesterday, when we compete in the zone we have really high success rates,” Allister said of Prystajko. “And I thought she was doing a good job of pitching ahead, competing in the zone, changing spins and speeds.”
“I know they didn’t see to much of me, they didn’t see any of me yesterday,” Prystajko said. “So coming in with that new, like, throw strikes, let them hit the ball, let them give it, the defense some work, and I know we get outs.”
In the bottom of the 4th, Stanford added three runs. River Mahler hit a two-RBI double to bring home Emily Jones and Taryn Kern before Jade Berry hit a solo shot to right field to make it 6-0. Kya Chan then grounded out to end the bottom of the inning. Stanford was looking good and on the verge of another victory that didn’t require seven innings.
“It’s awesome,” Prystajko said of getting that run support. “I think our offense is great this year. I think we’re really putting the ball in play a lot, so just let them do their thing and whatever I can get in there, I would love that.”
Neither team would score in the 5th inning, though Stanford had some life in the bottom of the 5th as Caelan Koch hit a double, leading to runners on 1st and 3rd base with two outs. However, Stanford was unable to add a run in the inning as Emily Jones grounded out.
In the bottom of the 6th inning after Kylie Chung pitched a scoreless inning in the top of the inning, River Mahler and Allie Clements got walked in back-to-back at-bats with no outs. Up next to the plate came Jade Berry, who homered to right field for the walk-off win. That made it a 9-0 victory for the Cardinal.
“I don’t really remember, I kind of blacked out at the end,” Berry said of her walk-off home run. “I was just trying to go up there, have a good at-bat, trying to help my team in any way. It was a really cool experience. Hope to have more like it eventually. I’m just happy that we got the win, got an ACC series sweep. It was a good game.”
“This game is a game of ups and downs,” Allister said. “Specifically on the offensive side of the ball and I think Jade probably didn’t lover her offensive performance the first two games of the series and coming out and having a great day today and just like staying level headed and sticking with it and when you’re gonna have that consistent approach, you can be a consistent hitter and she’s shown a lot of maturity there.”
For Stanford, this was a great win for them as it secured a 3-0 sweep over a solid Syracuse team. What makes it all the more impressive for Stanford is they got better with each passing game of the series. The got stronger as the series went on, winning game three by more runs than games one and two combined.
“We knew that they were going to come in, like you said, with a good game,” Berry said of Syracuse. “They’re gonna throw their best pitchers, they’re gonna do everything they can to try to win and I think that we knew that and we also wanted to bring our best game just like we have been in the past couple of days. So just coming out knocking that it’s gonna be a tough fight and that we have to put everything on the table just like we have been.”
Of course, Jade Berry and Zoe Prystajko were the two heroes of this game for Stanford. Berry’s five RBIs and two home runs were fantastic while Prystajko was pretty darn close to lights out, giving up only two hits and no walks.
“Obviously Jade Berry saw the ball very well today,” Allister said. “And I thought we had some other big hits. You know, stringing together with two outs, the number of singles in a row in order to score. That’s good.”
“I think just keeping it simple,” Prystajko said of the key to her performance. “Trusting my defense, hitting my spots, you know, I get the outs.”
In addition to this being a great day for Stanford softball, it was also a good day for Stanford baseball, who defeated No. 4 North Carolina 7-0 to take two out of three in the series. When informed of the win baseball had, Allister was pretty fired up for them.
“It’s fantastic,” Allister said of watching baseball do well. “Their coaching staff is awesome. Esqy is very very good to us and Eager their pitching coach is fantastic and so, you know, we cheer for everybody in the department, we cheer hard for them. It’s fun to see them be successful.”
Up next for Stanford is the DeMarini Invitational at home, featuring non-league opponents Cal Baptist and Nevada. The first game for Stanford will be on Thursday, March 13th at 4:30 PM PT on ACCNX.
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