Recap: No. 20 Stanford Softball gets sweep over NC State
On Sunday, No. 20 Stanford softball defeated NC State 3-1 to get a series sweep over the Wolfpack. Zoe Prystajko (15-5) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Rylee Wyman (6-9) was the losing pitcher for the Wolfpack in a starting role. Emily Jones went 2-3 for two RBIs to lead the way for the Cardinal while Taryn Kern hit an RBI single for the Cardinal. Stanford improves to 30-12 overall and 15-6 in the ACC while NC State falls to 25-20 overall and 6-11 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: NC State at Stanford-Sunday, April 19th
“It’s great,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said of getting the sweep. “Anytime you can get a conference sweep, like it’s a great day. And to not feel really good about that would be a mistake. I thought we looked a little tired today. I thought, you know, obviously last week a really big emotional weekend. Bus trip down to Fresno State this week and then coming out and facing a good NC State team that I think probably everybody on our roster doesn’t know quite how good that team is. I thought you saw us wear that on our sleeve a little bit today. But I thought pitching staff was fantastic. I thought the defense was really, really good. And the offense, did what it needed to do. So, it’s a good day.”
“Yeah, I think just hitting my spots, letting the defense do its thing,” Prystajko said of her win. “It’s the third day, they’ve seen me a couple times now, so just trusting that my infield has got me.”
Stanford scored all three of their runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning to go up 3-0:
Joie Economides singled to shallow center field to lead things after which Ava Gall flied out for the first out of the inning. Addyson Sheppard then got hit by a pitch, advancing Sophia Jin to second base, who was pinch running for Economides. Sydney Boulaphinh then struck out looking for the second out. Taryn Kern then singled to right field to bring home Jin and advance Sheppard to third base. Emily Jones then doubled to right center to bring home Sheppard and Kern. Kyra Chan then flied out to left field to end the inning.
“I was just going in there really telling myself over and over again that I have to hit a strike and that was really it,” Jones said of her two-RBI double. “I think that me and Taryn talk a lot about having really good processes and having and focusing on having really good approaches and one of the things that I’ve been like telling myself is it has to be a strike and keep it like that cute, trying to keep that as simple as possible and just telling myself between every pitch that has to be a strike.”
“She just keeps getting better and better and better and better, huh?” Allister said of Jones. “Obviously she had a fantastic day at the plate yesterday. Again, had a great day at the plate today and I’m really proud of her. Obviously, the bunt is a big piece of her game, and when teams start selling out to take it away, her, you know, driving it past the defense is especially satisfying. But yeah, she’s great playing ball right now, which is important for us.”
NC State’s lone run came in the top of the 4th inning:
Lily Livingston singled to shallow left field to get things going. At this point, Stanford made a pitching change with Alyssa Houston coming in for Anna Brewer. Houston would then force a fly out as Kendall Simmers flied out to deep center field. Morgen Talley then got walked, advancing Livingston to second base. Houston then threw a wild pitch to advance Talley to second base and Livingston to third base. Houston then threw a second wild pitch (back-to-back) to bring home Livingston and advance Talley to third base. From there, Houston would force back-to-back pop ups to end the top of the 4th. 3-1 Stanford led.
From there, Stanford would go on to win the game 3-1 as neither team scored the rest of the way. It was more of a defensive battle. Houston got the first out of the top of the 5th inning before walking back-to-back batters. As a result, Zoe Prystajko came in to finish the job, pitching the final 2.2 innings and totaling one strikeout without giving up a hit or a walk. Prystajko did however commit a throwing error in the top of the 7th inning, allowing MaKayla Marbury to get on base and advance to third. From there, Prystajko got the next three batters out via pop up, line out, and pop up. 3-1 was the final score as Stanford secured the sweep.
“Yeah, I think just kind of same thing,” Prystajko said of that 7th inning. “Hitting my spots, letting my defense work, but also knowing that like, that run doesn’t matter as much, just get the next one…Yeah, kind of just coming into pre-game, like a couple hours before the game, they had like a whole plan, the coaches do a really good job of giving me time to be prepared for the role that I’m gonna be in.”
“Yeah, I’m incredibly proud of her,” Allister said of Prystajko. “And obviously that run at that point in time, like, doesn’t matter at all. So now all of a sudden you’re just playing a one run game with nobody on in your mind and going after the hitter. But yeah, just kind of what I touched on earlier. Like, I thought that was really important for Zoe. We’re going to need her to be big in big moments and she has throughout the year. But again, when you’re putting those big moments all of the time, you’re also gonna struggle at times. So I think it’s good for her to continue to build her well of memories and of self-image of, you know, throwing big pitches in those situations.”
For Stanford, this is a nice win. They get the sweep and in the process prove to themselves that they can win a lower scoring affair. This is certainly a win they can draw a lot of confidence from.
“I think a win is a win,” Prystajko said of winning a low scoring game. “Any way we get it done, the pitcher is like, obviously on the other team gets to know us a little bit better, too. But either way, I think just competing, just trying to score.”
“That’s a huge benefit, right?” Allister said of winning in different ways. “That’s the goal. You got three aspects of the game and if you have two of the three on any given day, you got a shot to win. And you know, today we had pitching and defense. So, I think yeah, being able to score different ways, you don’t want to be a one trick pony that is hamstrung, if that skill set doesn’t show up on any given day. And it’s also, like good for the defense and good for the pitchers to be put in those situations. You know, it’s a long season and you know, everybody has their struggles through it and I think that today’s the day that our pitching staff can really draw confidence from of shutting the door.”
With the win, Stanford has now won eight games in a row. They are certainly on a nice roll right now and starting to heat up at the right time. Getting themselves healthy is obviously a big part of that.
“Yeah, it’s pretty difficult because, you know, you both see each more and that gives you strengths,” Jones said of the challenge of getting a sweep. “But it also proposes some challenges. And so, it is, yeah, it’s hard.”
On Monday, following the win, Prystajko was named ACC Pitcher of the Week for the second time this season. She was the winning pitcher in all three games, doing a great job of grabbing the bull by the horns and doing whatever is asked of her whether it’s starting or coming out of the bullpen.
“I think, I don’t know, I don’t think that much changes,” Prystajko said of switching between bullpen and starting. “I think I still have to do a job. It depends on, like, how many times they’ve seen me in through the lineup, but between closing and starting, I think just same thing. Like backing up my pitchers if I’m coming in for them or if I’m starting, then giving them a good start.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at Santa Clara on Wednesday, April 22nd at 6:00 PM PT on ESPN+. Stanford baseball will also be playing at Santa Clara at the same time after rain caused their Monday game to be canceled. Both games will get covered by this site.
“Yeah, Santa Clara is really good,” Allister said. “I think, you know, obviously they won the conference for the first time last year in program history. I think they got pretty much everybody back. They got a good pitching staff. They got some good speed; they got some good hitters in the middle of the order. So they are going to be a formidable, formidable opponent. And we’ll treat it like any other game. Like, we gotta show up ready to go.”
“Just getting our work in this week,” Jones added. “To be prepared as we can.”
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