Recap: No. 20 Stanford Softball gets sweep over Cal
On Sunday, No. 20 Stanford softball defeated Cal 5-0 to get a series sweep over the Golden Bears at Stanford Stadium. Zoe Prystajko (18-5) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Tamya Waiters (1-7) was the losing pitcher for the Golden Bears in a starting role. Jade Berry had a team-high two RBIs for the Cardinal. Stanford improves to 34-12 overall and 18-6 in the ACC while Cal falls to 13-36 overall and 3-18 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Cal-Sunday, April 26th
“Yeah, any time you get a sweep in conference play, that’s a big deal,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “And any time we get a sweep over the Cal Bears, we’re really, really, really happy. So, proud of the team on a day that felt a little bit harder than the other two days. To stick with it, come out, put up a zero on the board, and win the game.”
“Oh it feels great,” Stanford catcher Ava Gall said of getting the sweep. “I mean, sun’s shining right now, any day that we can beat Cal is a great day. We have that really hard school rivalry, so I’m feeling great.”
Neither team scored in the first two innings of the game as both starting pitchers Alyssa Houston (Stanford) and Tamya Waiters (Cal) were able to pitch well enough to keep it a 0-0 game. Stanford did get the bases loaded in the top of the 2nd with two outs, but they weren’t able to take advantage.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Stanford added two runs: Taryn Kern doubled to right field after which Emily Jones bunt-singled to the pitcher’s mound to advance Kern to third base. Kyra Chan then singled through the right side to bring home Kern and advance Jones from first to third base.
“Well, she was throwing a change up and so that’s what kind of I was expecting,” Chan said of her RBI. “And so I was like, okay, let me hit it. So yeah.”
After River Mahler flied out, Jade Berry reached first base on a fielder’s choice as Jones scored and Chan advanced to second base. Addyson Sheppard would later fly out to end the top of the inning. 2-0 lead for the Cardinal. Houston would not finish the bottom of the 3rd inning for Stanford as Prystajko came in to get the final out.
“Just overall, it’s so great to have her back,” Gall said of Houston. “We really missed her. We love her so much. It’s been so fun to watch her grow. Her rise ball, her curve ball, it had so much movement, so much break, and she looked amazing. So, it’s so fun catching her. I’m super proud of her and her speed, her VLOs are amazing right now. She’s throwing hard.”
The next run for Stanford came in the top of the 5th inning as Gall hit a sac fly to left field with the bases loaded to bring home Mahler. Sheppard would ground out to second base while Berry was out at home to end the top of the inning. 3-0 lead for Stanford.
“Absolutely, so when I have runners in scoring position, my biggest thought is hit it hard on the ground or deep in the air,” Gall said of her sac fly. “Knowing that my at-bat, hits are nice obviously. I’d love to get a hit, but realistically, the goal is to have a selfless at-bat and bring those runners in. So I saw a good pitch, elevated it to left. It was deep enough to bring her in and I knew that I did my job.”
“I think the thing that people who don’t maybe watch the game, but just look at all the numbers, don’t have a way to appreciate is just what Ava Gall brings to the field,” Allister said. “And I think as far as showing up every day and working hard for her teammates, and having great energy, and just really love and compete in the Stanford uniform, Ava is, she’s kind of the engine behind our team in that aspect and she just continues to get better and better and better.
“And I think I forget sometimes that her freshman year, she didn’t spend any time behind the plate. She was at first base the entire time and then last year got hurt. So, she still is a young catcher in a way and you can see that as she just gets better and better and better as the season goes on.”
Stanford added two more runs in the top of the 7th inning as Chan got things going with a double to left center. Mahler then flied out for the first out. Berry then tripled to left field to bring home Chan from second base. That made it 4-0. Joie Economides then singled up the middle to bring home Berry. 5-0 lead for the Cardinal. Gall and Sheppard then flied out to end the top of the 7th.
“Yeah, I was just making adjustments in the box during the at-bat,” Chan said of her double. “And so, I just wanted to get on base any way I could and found a hole. It was nice…I’m just glad that I could do something to help out the team. You know, I think it’s great to have those insurance runs because anything can happen and we’re visitors, so yeah, it was just nice to be able to contribute.”
In the bottom of the 7th inning, Prystajko would shut the door on the Bears to preserve the shutout as she only gave up a single in the inning. 5-0 Stanford won the game and got the series sweep over Cal.
“Oh, easily that drop ball,” Gall said of what’s working for Prystajko. “I think her drop ball has been a really key factor for her success this season and I love watching her figure out different ways to try and use it against the hitters. And so when she executes that pitch, I’m 100 percent confident, that confidence she’s going to get the runner out.”
“Yeah, it’s great,” Allister said of the pitching. “I thought there’s a couple pieces that probably go into that. One, it was nice to be able to limit kind of exposure in the first two games so when we got a little bit extended here in the last game, we felt good about pitch counts over the weekend and different bats against different hitters over the weekend. Alyssa being back continues to be just a massive boon to us as far pitching goes. So for her to come out and have a really good start was awesome. So yeah, the pitching has been great.”
For Stanford, this is a nice win. They get the sweep over their rival in dominating fashion, outscoring Cal 31-1 over the three-game series. That’s about as dominating as you can get. The offense was electric and the pitching/defense was excellent as well. Just an all-around great weekend for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, I think when you have enough people left on base, then it allows you to be timely because when you get a hit there’s gonna be a good chance that there’s somebody on base,” Allister said. “But yeah, I thought we got some big wins. Kyra got a big one in whatever inning. That would be in the second inning. Two strikes with runners on. Big hit. Jade, same thing. Joie same thing. So, timely hitting is the name of the game.”
“It feels awesome,” Chan said. “I love any day that we beat Cal and it’s just a really good win that we can draw off of going into, you know, these next couple weeks…I just thought we were able to string things together. So, you know, one thing we’ve been really working on is compounding our little micro wins and so I thought we did that even on a day like this.”
As for Cal, this is pretty embarrassing. They clearly have a lot of work to do as a softball program. I understand they’re in a nomadic season due to their new stadium being built and all, but still. Getting waxed like this is? Hard to find a good excuse for this. It’ll be interesting to see if first year head coach Steve Singleton can get this program turned around.
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Pacific on Wednesday. That will be at 4:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, it’s another week to get better,” Allister said looking ahead. “So, you know, it’s kind of what we talked about in the huddle out there is make sure you do whatever you need to do for the next day and a half to make sure you’re mentally, physically, and emotionally refreshed and ready to come out, have a great practice on Tuesday, and get ready to go on Wednesday, but the goal is to be playing softball for a long time. And we want to make sure that all those practice opportunities, we continue to get better.”
“I just think keep doing what we’re doing and just kind of leave out all the baggage of you know, what the season has,” Chan said. “And just kind of playing free and fearless.”
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