Last weekend, No. 20 Stanford softball cruised through the Cardinal Classic at home, following up their dominant Friday wins over UC Davis and UC Riverside with wins over UC Riverside and Portland State on Saturday before then defeating UC Davis on Sunday.
RECAP: No. 22 Stanford SB dominates UC Davis & UC Riverside
In the first game on Saturday, Stanford defeated UC Riverside 5-1 in five innings before blasting Portland State 16-5 in five innings. Stanford’s Sunday win over UC Davis was also a five inning affair as they won 13-5.
The game I was present for was the 16-5 win over Portland State, so I’ll be focusing in on that game. Stanford freshman Zoe Prystajko was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal with four earned runs and two strikeouts in 3.0 innings pitched while senior Kylie Chung pitched the final 2.0 innings, giving up one earned run while striking out three batters.
As for the Cardinal offense is concerned, Taryn Kern (1 RBI), Emily Jones (2 RBI), Ella Murchison (2 RBI), Ava Gall (3 RBI), Joie Economides (3 RBI), and Sydney Boulaphinh (1 RBI) each hit one home run in the game, so there was an excellent amount of hitting balance across the lineup.
BOX SCORE: Portland State at Stanford-Saturday, February 15th
This game was one-way traffic all the way through for Stanford as they led 3-1 at the end of the 1st inning and then 9-2 at the end of the 2nd inning. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Taryn Kern hit a solo shot after which Ava Gall hit a two-run homer to bring home Emily Jones. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Emily Jones hit a two-run homer to bring home Dani Hayes, Ava Gall hit an RBI single to bring home River Mahler, and then Joie Economides hit a three-run homer to bring home Kyra Chan and Kiley Buckley.
“Good day,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said. “Obviously we swung the bats well. I thought Zoe did a good job in the circle, I thought she threw some good innings, I was proud of the way Kylie came back in the second game after a tough first game outing and threw some good innings there and it was good to get a lot of people in the games and thought we swung the bats really well.”
“Apparently it was a change-up,” Gall said of her home run. “Honestly, like to see it, I just saw that it was like right down the middle. Good speed. I felt on time I was seeing it all of that at-bat, so my eyes got big because she obviously left it over the plate so I just gave it my best swing and then yeah, the rest is history.”
Stanford added four more runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning as River Mahler hit a two-RBI double, Allie Clements grounded out for an RBI, and then Mahler scored on a wild pitch.
As for the bottom of the 4th inning, Stanford added three runs as Sydney Boulaphinh hit a solo homer after which Ella Murchison hit a two-run homer to bring home Camryn Carmouche. That was Murchson’s first career hit. Pretty amazing.
“My first career home run and my first career hit,” Murchison said with a smile. “Being ready when the team needs you. Our motto this year is get off yourself, get on the team and being ready whenever the team needs you. So I was just trying to do that and be ready for my team.
“So fun. These are all my best friends. So being able to share that moment with them is really special.”
“Those are the special moments, right?” Allister said of Murchison’s home run. “And the people that put in the work every single day and are fabulous teammates along the way and just stay ready. To see her get a good swing off on a good pitch, it’s pretty awesome.”
Down 16-4 entering the 5th inning, Portland State needed to put up a bunch of runs to keep the game going, but they only were able to score one more run, ending the game in the 5th inning as Stanford won 16-5.
“I think the depth one through nine is pretty good,” Allister said of their lineup. “You know, I think when you’ve got players like Joie and Caelan producing the way they’ve been producing 8-9, I think that’s pretty special. And then through nine, still people are coming in off the bench and have really good at-bats. So, I think the depth is even deeper than that, but I think when you can put pressure up and down because you can score at any point in time, that helps the consistency.”
“One is confidence, that’s a big thing,” Gall said of their offensive success. “We’re all cheering each other on. We all are like celebrating each other’s successes, which I think is just a key for everything for like on and off the field. But then in practice, we’ve been spending a lot of time working on different pitches, working on different movements on pitches, we’ve really just been putting the work in. Iron sharpens iron.”
For Stanford, this was great weekend for them as they went 5-0, improving their record to 9-0 on the season. The pitching was once again fantastic and then the hitting was simply sensational. Just all-around, a great weekend of softball at Stanford Stadium.
“I think we’ve been incredibly comfortable,” Allister said of playing Stanford Stadium. “I think we were comfortable a couple of weekends in practice and it just feels like our home. It feels like we’re playing in a really big, awesome stadium. That’s got great atmosphere and yeah, it’s great.”
Looking ahead, Stanford is currently playing at Hillenbrand Invitational in Tucson, Arizona. On Thursday, February 20th, they soundly defeated UC Davis 9-0 in five innings as Zoe Prystajko pitched a no-hitter before later falling to No. 14 Arizona 4-1.
“What I think she’s doing a really good job of, she’s competing in the zone,” Allister said of Prystajko. “And when she competes in the zone, she’s in business. When we get into trouble is when we start issuing free passes. And that’s not just Zoe. That’s like pitchers in general. You wanna limit the free passes. I think she’s doing a good job of competing in the zone, going at hitters. And when you do that and you have good stuff, you can be successful. She’s doing a good job. Learning a little bit every day.”
Stanford is now 10-1 on the season and will look to bounce back against No. 1 Texas on Friday. That will not be an easy game at all. After that, they’ll close out the weekend against Colorado State and Arizona once more. It’ll be interesting to see how the Cardinal fair the rest of the way before hitting the road for their first ACC series at Georgia Tech.
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