Preview: Stanford softball welcomes No. 5 Florida State to The Farm
This weekend, Stanford softball will welcome No. 5 Florida State to The Farm. Stanford comes in at 23-12 overall and 9-6 in the ACC while Florida State comes in at 36-4 overall and 12-0 in the ACC. Game one will be on Friday at 6:00 PM PT on ESPN2. Game two will be on Saturday at 7:00 PM PT on ESPN. Game three will be on Sunday at 2:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
Last time out: Stanford defeated UC Davis on Tuesday by a final score of 6-0. The Cardinal pitching staff pitched a collective no hitter. Stanford’s last home stand was the Cardinal Classic II against No. 21. Washington and Saint Mary’s last weekend. They went 2-2 in those games, going 1-1 each against the Gaels and Huskies.
“Yeah, I think up and down is probably right,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said of last weekend. “I think some real good stuff and some stuff that we can continue to chip away at. I think the first game against Washington, I think we did some good. I think we had a lot of opportunities there to take that game. And, you know, I thought there’s some calls that maybe don’t go our direction, but I thought maybe our recovery from that wasn’t great. I was proud of the way that we came back against a good Saint Mary’s team on Friday and I thought we had some good things there.
“You know, I think getting Alyssa back is the best part of the weekend. I think, you know, the inning she gave us on Friday and the inning she gave us today, you know, we’ve missed her in pitching rotation with Krause out for the weekend and then Alyssa beat up, all of a sudden we’re pretty short staffed there on a four-game weekend, so we knew there was gonna be a little bit of a challenge there. So I thought, Alyssa was great earlier today. I thought Ava Bulanti had a really good day, threw some big innings and then we gotta work to get back in the zone a little bit with the others, but yeah, I thought the win this morning was gritty, was fantastic. And that’s a good Saint Mary’s team. Like, don’t get fooled. They’re good.”
On Florida State: The Seminoles are having a fantastic season as their record suggests. They’re undefeated in ACC play and ironically enough are best on the road (7-0). So, Stanford has their work cut out for them in this one.
The Seminoles have a 2.88 ERA on the season so far while their opponents have an 8.68 ERA. Jazzy Francik is leading the way in the circle with a 15-1 record and a 1.67 ERA while Ashtyn Danley is right behind her with an 8-1 record and a 2.41 ERA. Those two form a really good one-two punch in the circle.
Junior infielder Isa Torres is having a phenomenal season, batting .624 for eight home runs and 38 RBIs while having a .675 on base percentage and a whopping 1.064 slugging percentage. Junior infielder Jaysoni Beachum is batting .402 for six home runs and 49 RBIs while having a .544 on base percentage and a .654 slugging percentage.
The bottom line is the Seminoles are elite with their pitching and their hitting. Hence they are dominating almost every game they play. If you take a closer look at their team stats below, you’ll see they are even more loaded with talent.
Team stats-Florida State
Keys to the game: The first thing Stanford needs to do is contain Torres. If they can bog her down and not allow her to have a big weekend, that would be huge. She’s the engine that makes this Seminoles offense go. If she’s not doing her usual damage, Stanford should have a shot.
Secondly, Stanford has to get a big series from Taryn Kern. She is hitting fantastic this season with her .419 batting average, 13 home runs, and 34 RBIs. If she has a big series and gets rolling, Stanford should be able to hang around.
Finally, Stanford needs to play a clean game defensively. You aren’t going to beat elite teams playing sloppy. They will make you pay for even the slightest mistake. If Stanford can field cleanly, not make any throwing errors, and just play good, fundamental softball, at least at that point, they’ll be requiring Florida State to play their best.
Prediction: Given how good Florida State is playing, I’ll pick the Seminoles to take two out of three games. I do see Stanford finding a way to avoid the sweep and hand the Seminoles their first loss of ACC play, but Florida State is too good to not pick to win the series.
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