Recap: No. 19 Stanford Softball falls to Notre Dame on Sunday
On Sunday, No. 19 Stanford softball fell to Notre Dame at home by a final score of 7-4. Brianne Weiss (6-5) was the winning pitcher for the Irish in relief role while Anna Brewer (2-1) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role. Designated player Hayden Kyne and catcher Rebecca Eckart each had two RBIs for the Irish. Notre Dame improves to 12-16 overall and 2-4 in the ACC while Stanford falls to 15-8 overall and 5-4 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Notre Dame at Stanford-Sunday, March 15th
“Yeah, rough day,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “Rough day, rough weekend. I thought it started it out well. I thought, you know, Zoe gave us a really good clean first inning. Obviously, Kyra and Jade squaring up balls in the first inning…and we’re just, we’re in a second to fifth inning rut right now and we seem to start off strong and seem to end pretty strong and in the middle, we’re really struggling to get things going. So, had some good, had some things we need to get better at, and we’ll get back to work.”
Zoe Prystajko got the start for the Cardinal in the pitcher’s circle, getting three straight batters out in the top of the 1st inning: Two ground outs and a pop up. In the bottom of the 1st inning, with two outs, Kyra Chan homered to deep left field. Jade Berry then flied out to end the inning. 1-0 lead for Stanford.
In the top of the 2nd inning, the Irish would get the bases loaded up two outs. All three batters got on base via walk. Prystajko would then walk Tenley Sweet to bring home Sydny Poeck. Prystajko then forced a ground out to end the top of the inning. It was now tied 1-1. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, nobody got on base for Stanford, keeping it tied up.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Ava Zachary hit a single through the right side of the infield before then stealing second base. With two outs, Hayden Kyne singled to left center to bring home Zachary. Notre Dame wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning making it 2-1. Nobody would get on base for Stanford in the bottom of the 3rd, keeping it at a 2-1 game.
In the 4th inning, neither team would score nor was their pitching change as Prystajko remained in the circle for the Cardinal while Micaela Kastor remained in the circle for the Irish.
In the top of the 5th inning, Anna Brewer came in to pitch for Prystajko. Brewer would walk Zachary and then hit Poeck. All with zero outs. Kyne then singled up the middle to bring home Zachary while Poeck was out at third base. Notre Dame wouldn’t add any more runs rest of the inning, making it 3-1 entering the bottom of the 5th.
“Yeah, I think we play a game that the harder you try and the more you want to do something well, the worse you get at it,” Allister said of why the middle innings have been a struggle. “And I think there’s probably not a group of women in the country who would not like to do better and if they could try harder and get the result they want, they’d just continue to try harder. Unfortunately, that’s now the game works. So, I think we’ve got to work on staying within our process, work on letting the game come to us, and just get back to it. But that’s also, I mean, it’s bat and ball sports. Sometimes it’s hard and you gotta stick to it.”
In the bottom of the 5th inning, Stanford would score one run to make it 3-2. River Mahler tripled down the left field line to get in prime scoring position. With one out, Mylia Perez singled to shallow left field, bringing home Mahler.
In the top of the 6th inning, Brewer would not allow any runs, keeping it at a 3-2 game. In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford would even it up 3-3. Emily Jones got on first base via catcher’s interference. With one out, Jones would steal second base. Berry then doubled to left center to bring home Jones. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, making it tied going into the 7th inning.
In the top of the 7th inning, the wheels came off for the Cardinal. Caroline O’Brien singled to right field for the Irish after which Zachary doubled to right field to advance O’Brien to third base. A pitching change brought Prystajko back in for Brewer. Prystajko would hit Poeck to load up the bases. Then, a wild pitch brought home O’Brien. Kyne then got hit by a pitch to load up the bases again.
At this point, Ava Bulanti came in to pitch for Prystajko. Olivia Levitt then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Zachary while Poeck was out at third base. It was now a 5-3 lead for the Irish. Rather than getting the next batter out to keep it at 5-3, Bulanti gave up a two-run homer to Rebecca Eckart who went yard to left field to bring home Kyne. Avery Houlihan then grounded out to first base to end the top of the 7th inning. 7-3 Notre Dame led.
“Yeah, you know, Zoe hadn’t really thrown much this weekend,” Allister said of how they were trying to approach that final inning. “The goal was yesterday. We got ourselves into a position to shorten the game for and give us a chance to win. She was going to go in and that one kind of got away from us early. So she never went in. We don’t want to over-expose her when we’re down five. So we gave her the ball to start today.
“We knew Brewer was a great matchup. She did a really good job on Friday. We were concerned about, you know, how many innings she could go. So trying to manage that exposure piece and fatigue piece and then bringing Zoe back in, I like her in that situation. She’s been just dynamite to right-handed hitters. When runners get on second and third, we need to strike out some pop-ups and that’s not Brewer, that’s Zoe. And, you know, she’ll get that opportunity in a situation like that again and she’ll be better.
“And then I thought it was pretty clear we needed to get another arm in there and go to Bulanti. So probably threw one changeup too many. I think she had her. But again, you know, got behind a little bit early. Just saw too many of the pitches.”
In the bottom of the 7th, Stanford added one run as Jones hit an RBI double to right center with two outs to bring home Izzy Cacatian. That would be the only run Stanford would score in the inning, making 7-4 the final score.
To quickly address Notre Dame, this is a nice win for them. I picked Stanford to get the sweep and so for them to not only avoid the sweep but win the series 2-1 is massive for them. They should take a lot of confidence from this weekend as they head back to South Bend.
“You know, I’d have to go back and watch the film,” Allister said of how much was Notre Dame hitting well and them not pitching well. “I think, it’s probably a little bit of both. I think their hitters are doing a good job of not getting finished off early. I mean easy. So we’re executing some good pitches with two outs. I mean with two strikes on people that they’re getting rid of and making us throw more. So they’re making it difficult. And then I think we’re pitching backwards a lot. We’re outside of the zone and now all of a sudden, we have to come into the zone. At that point, you get really reliant on the umpires and that’s just no way to go. So we gotta be in the zone earlier and let them see less pitches.”
As for Stanford, this is a massive disappointment. At a minimum, they were supposed to win the series. For that to not happen really stings. They had a chance to still win this series when it was tied 3-3 going into the 7th. To fall apart like they did has to be infuriating for them.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this and not let it bleed into the upcoming games. If they can bounce back these next couple weeks, this past weekend against the Irish could end up being nothing more than a blip on the radar.
“Well, I don’t know if you can make sure of it, but you can put all the things in place to try to cut it off,” Allister said of stopping the skid. “And you gotta stick together and this is how it goes. It’s how competition goes. This is how bat and ball sports go.
“So like, we got finals coming up. I told them if I’m them, I’m taking some time away from the game. Like, sure physically we have a couple things we need to work on, but we need like a little bit of a mental reset. We gotta show up to the field fresh and then just, you know, keep our bubbles small.
“I think, I don’t know, it might have been Saban or somebody. Somebody one time said other people’s opinions are poison if they’re great and they’re poison if they’re bad. But either way, they’re poisoned. So, keep a clubhouse tight. Find a way to get better, because you can get better in all three aspects of the game. Get back to work. We don’t really have any time to feel sorry for ourselves.”
Up next for Stanford is a road series at North Carolina. The first game of the series will be on Friday, March 20th at 3:00 PM PT.
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