Recap: No. 19 Stanford Softball powers past Pacific
On Wednesday, No. 19 Stanford softball defeated Pacific at home by a final score of 4-2. Alyssa Houston (5-2) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role, pitching 4.1 innings with three strikeouts while Zoe Prystajko picked up her fourth save of the season, securing the final out of the game via strikeout. Justice Alcaraz (4-10) was the losing pitcher for the Tigers in a starting role. Stanford improves to 35-12 overall (18-6 ACC) while Pacific falls to 16-33 overall (4-11 WCC).
BOX SCORE: Pacific at Stanford-Wednesday, April 29th
“Great to come out and get a midweek win,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “I think these are the type of games that are really good for us. Feel a little bit of maybe frustration building throughout and we stuck with it and that’s the game we play, the bat and ball sports. So, midweek wins are good wins and you know, I thought we got some really good stuff from the pitching staff. I thought Brewer gave us a good start. Thought Alyssa, that’s the longest she’s thrown in a long time. She thrown five complete innings there, which she hasn’t done in a hot minute, which is fantastic that we were able to extend her and continue to build her up.
“Then obviously Zoe coming in and shutting it down and it was good to get Izzy an at-bat. She hasn’t had one in a second. The first strike that she saw, you know, she got a good swing on it, so some really good stuff.”
Neither team scored in the first two innings as Stanford starting pitcher Anna Brewer and Pacific starter Justice Alcaraz both were pitching a shutout. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Emily Jones would hit a bunt single for Stanford and steal second base only to be stranded. In the bottom of the 2nd, Ava Gall was walked for Stanford with two outs only to get stranded.
In the top of the 3rd, Pacific was the first team to score as Allie Capello hit a two-RBI triple to left center to bring home Olivia Silvestre from second base and Zaedi Tagalog from first base. Kelly Whelihan would strike out swinging to end the top of the inning. Both runs were earned to Brewer as Houston came in to pitch the top of the 3rd inning with one out. Houston ended up giving up the triple but wasn’t credited with the earned runs since Silvestre and Tagalog both got on base when Brewer pitched.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Stanford was unable to score any runs despite having Taryn Kern on third base and Emily Jones on second base with two outs. Kyra Chan would strike out swinging after which River Mahler grounded out to second base to end the inning. It remained a 2-0 lead for the Tigers.
In the top of the 4th inning, Houston only gave up a walk, keeping it at 2-0. She was starting to really find her groove. It’s been huge for Stanford to get her back to true form.
“I felt like it felt good and the team was good, but overall, I just felt like we played well, fixed some things, played calm,” Houston said of her performance. “I just think even when the other team scores, it’s not more pressure. It’s more opportunity to score and just more opportunity for people to just, like, get better swings off and just, like, for me to throw better pitches, but overall I think it’s just, like nothing changes, is you’re still going out there to try to beat the other team and still do everything you can to beat the other team.”
In the bottom of the 4th, Stanford finally got on the board. Jade Berry doubled to left center after which Joie Economides grounded out for the first out. Gall then singled to shallow left field, advancing Berry to third base. Jordana King then came in to pinch run for Gall, stealing second base.
Up next to the plate would be Izzy Cacatian, who was pinch hitting for Addyson Sheppard. Cacatian would hit a dinger to deep left field, bringing home Berry and King. That made it a 3-2 lead for the Cardinal. Sydney Boulaphinh then got walked. However, Kern would strike out after which Jones flied out to left field, ending the inning.
“Yeah, so my name got called,” Cacatian recalled. “You know, I was ready in the dugout. I saw Coach Allister kind of give me the nod and she gave me the sign and Coach Merchant was like hey be ready. And so then in the dugout, you know, I was taking a deep breath, slowing down, it’s nice. Like, there’s beauty in like getting to see so many pitches even though you’re not in the box. I thought that was really fun. It’s like I was; you know, I got 20 at-bats that game even though I wasn’t, I hadn’t gotten any, like real at-bats, you know what I’m saying? So, it was really cool and that was my process. I was seeing what the pitcher was throwing and everything and then, you know, I went on deck and just kept breathing and in the nose, out the mouth, you know? And then I just saw that pitch come in and I was like alright, just like getting good contact and just keeping my swing level.”
“It was great,” Allister said of Cacatian’s home run. “And I’m unsurprised. Izzy can really hit. And I think that based on just a lot of other factors, like, her opportunities of like come and gone, which is a good thing, too. Obviously, Ava Gall is getting on a roll back there as well. She’s been really, really, really hot. You know, the last month. But we know that Izzy is a great option to get in there at any time and it was great to see her come through.”
Stanford would add one more run in the bottom of the 5th inning as Sheppard got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring home Mahler. That made it 4-2. Boulaphinh would strike out to end the inning.
From there, Stanford would go on to win 4-2. Houston would pitch all the way until the final out of the 7th inning, stretching her far more than she has in a while (4.1 innings). As a result, Prystajko came in fresh to get the final out via strikeout.
“Yeah, a couple things,” Allister said of the decision to have Prystajko get the final out. “One, like I talked about before, like, we had really extended Alyssa. Which was the plan, because we want to continue to build up her legs. But she was like further than she’s been pitch-count wise in a long time. So, we were gonna have a little bit of a short hook there because of the fatigue factor. And then also just, you know, Zoe against righties. You want to kind of shut that thing down before you get back to the top of the order and Zoe’s numbers against righties are video game like. So it was good for her to come in and be in that situation as well and finish out games.”
For Stanford, this is a nice win. They came from behind and got an unlikely hero in Izzy Cacatian. Those are the kind of wins that can build confidence.
“Absolutely amazing,” Houston said of Cacatian’s homer. “I had a feeling, me and Taylor Nelson. Were like, yeah, she’s due. And it was just amazing. I think she has just done a wonderful, wonderful job like coming in and being ready and I think that whole entire freshman class as a whole has just, like, came in and just been ready when the opportunity has come and I think that’s just, like, something as a team that we just, like, pride ourselves in and I’m like, really proud of, like, you put any pinch hitter up in there, I think they’re gonna give you one hard time to get him out.”
“Yeah, I think it’s good to play from behind and get the confidence of coming from behind,” Allister said. “You feel a little bit of a different pressure in the box. So, being able to like manage those emotions I think is good. I think also our pitching staff, throwing under a little bit of pressure there, I think is really good. And you know, that’s what it looks like and that’s what it looks like, you know, a lot midweek if you look across the country. This is unsurprising, so no, it’s important for us to be in those situations.”
Plus, this is also an important win as Stanford seeks a top 16 seed and a chance to host a regional. They’ve now won 13 wins in a row and need all the wins they can get. A loss to Pacific would have been a dent in their resume and they can’t afford any dents at this point. That said, Stanford really is keeping a mentality of one game at a time, not looking beyond their next opponent.
“Oh, it’s just, I mean, keeping this good momentum in the dugout, in the locker room,” Cacatian said of their winning streak. “It just comes, it starts with how we walk onto the field and into the locker room. I think it’s a really key factor and our chemistry is unlike no other and I think that’s the beauty of Stanford softball. And so, that is definitely an advantage and I think we just keep it strong in the dugout and that presence is shown on the field as well.”
“I personally do not pay attention when this is getting brought up,” Houston said of possibly hosting a regional. “But, it would be really cool to host, but honestly, I’d rather just be in the regional. In a regional and just compete our butts off and any regional is best. But it’d be really nice to be home and not miss school. But yeah, like just completely just play anywhere and I’m just ready for postseason. And any regional is great. I don’t really mind. Whatever.”
On that note, Stanford’s next game will be Friday, May 1st at 6:00 PM PT on ACCNX against Sacramento State. This will be Senior Day, the final regular season game on The Farm.
“Yeah, Sac State is always really good,” Allister said of facing the Hornets. “They can always swing it. I’ve looked at their stats briefly. I haven’t really dug into them. I’ll do that now that this game is over. But they’re always a really well-coached team. I know they’ve got a diversity of pitching staff that can give us different looks and has been really successful thus far and they got some kids with some big power numbers. So, I don’t know that much about them yet outside of that Coach Perez always puts together a really good team and we’re gonna need to show up ready.”
“I think this is just, like I said, great momentum,” Cacatian added. “You know, we’re treating these midweek games like we’re already in postseason, like business starts now, and so we treat every game like that and I think that mentality has really helped us and it’s definitely proven on the field.”
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