Recap: No. 20 Stanford Softball run-rules Cal again on Saturday in shutout
On Saturday, No. 20 Stanford softball defeated Cal at Stanford Stadium by a final score of 9-0 in a game that ended in six innings. Zoe Prystajko (17-5) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role, pitching 5.0 innings with seven strikeouts and zero hits while Taylor Peacock (1-4) was the losing pitcher for the Golden Bears in a starting role, giving up four earned runs in 1.1 innings. Jade Berry had a team-high three RBIs for the Cardinal on 2-4 hitting while Taryn Kern hit a two-run home run. Stanford improves to 33-12 overall and 17-6 in the ACC while Cal falls to 13-35 overall and 3-17 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Cal-Saturday, April 25th
“Yeah, I thought it was another good game,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “I thought we did a really good job of coming out and having good at-bats right away. Obviously, Taryn, Kyra, double-double. We’ll take. Taryn, Kyra, Jade, double-double-double, that was fantastic. You know, Zoe gave us a great start in the circle. The three runs in the second to get it to five was really big and I thought Zoe was, you know, fantastic for five, and then the four runs to push it to nine allowed us to get Zoe out of there, get Brewer in, get Brewer some work was really important. So, pitching staff was fantastic. Defense was good. And we hit the ball. Good day.”
As a reminder, Stanford is playing as the road team even though the series is played on The Farm. As a result, they batted first.
“Yeah, it’s kind of an adjustment,” Prystajko said of the switch. “It’s a little funny, like for when I need to be warm, especially yesterday, it was like, didn’t know because I forgot that we weren’t the home team. But, it’s cool.”
In the top of 1st inning, Stanford got right to work with two runs as Taryn Kern got things going with a double to right center. Emily Jones then hit a sacrifice bunt to advance Kern to third base. Kyra Chan then doubled to left field to bring home Kern. With two outs, Berry doubled to right center to bring home Chan. Joie Economides then grounded out to end the bottom of the 1st.
“Yeah, I think, you know, Jade’s a really good hitter and I think she’ll be the first to tell you that she’s having really good process right now and maybe hasn’t been getting the payback the last couple of weeks that she wants,” Allister said of Berry. “But she’s swinging at good pitches, she’s getting good swings on the good pitches, and she’s starting to get the payout, which is really important for us moving forward.”
“Just trying to put bat on ball, to be honest,” Berry said. “I wasn’t trying to make it too complicated. You know, it’s already hard enough. So try to keep it as simple as possible. Just go up there and do something for my team.”
Stanford would add three more runs in the top of the 2nd inning to go up 5-0:
Ava Gall doubled to right center to get things going. With one out, Sydney Boulaphinh homered to deep center field, making it 4-0. With two outs, Jones got walked after which Chan tripled to right center to bring home Jones for the fifth run of the game. River Mahler then flied out to end the top of the inning.
“Yeah, I think we’ve got an offense that is capable of that,” Allister said of scoring runs early. “And I think the beautiful thing is there’s a couple of different ways that we can score, you know, sometimes its Taryn leading off with a bomb, which is great, and sometimes it’s drawing walks and manufacturing runs with some sac flies, which is great, but we got a lot of different ways that we can score, which allows you to be consistent offensively…Well it’s imperative. If you’re kind of pigeonholeding to only playing the long ball or only playing the short game on any given day against different pitchers, it’s gonna be hard to score.
“So it allows us to be successful, you know, with different umpires and against different pitchers and in different conditions, and you know there’s just some days where the ball looks like a beach ball and some days where it looks like a BB. And being able to manufacture runs when you need to and being able to you know, string together extra base hits, it’s a good thing.”
“Well staying confident, definitely, but I also think we’re really relaxed right now and go up with an approach and a plan,” Berry added. “Like, each one of us prepare beforehand what we want to see and what we want to do in the box. And I think that has really been beneficial for us throughout the entire game.”
The next three innings would be scoreless for both teams as Prystajko continued to dominate the Bears lineup. She would give up zero hits and only walk two batters through the bottom of the 5th.
“Yeah, I think just hitting my spot, trusting my defense,” Prystajko said of her performance. “Knowing that, you know, as long as I executed, then the results will take care of themselves.”
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford blew the game wide open. With one out, Boulaphinh was walked after which Kern went yard to deep center field to make it 7-0. Jones would then single up the middle after which Chan reached first base thanks to a fielding error while Jones advanced to third base. With two outs, Chan stole second base to get in scoring position after which Berry hit a double down the right field line to make it 9-0. Economides would ground out to end the top of the inning.
“I think we’re just drawing a lot of confidence right now,” Berry said of their offense. “And I think it’s perfect rolling into postseason and approaching postseason. I think this is when everyone kind of wants to get going and I think everybody’s just really excited and drawing off each other and it’s been fun so far.”
In the bottom of the 6th inning, Anna Brewer came in to close out the game in a non-save situation. Brewer would give up a hit but would preserve the shutout. 9-0 Stanford won as the game ended in the 6th inning via run rule.
“Oh, so much fun,” Berry said of dominating Cal. “They’re a great team, too and it’s even cooler to do it here, but no, yeah, it’s a little bit sweeter that it’s, you know, Cal.”
Even though Cal is in a funk, it still feels good for Stanford to thoroughly beat their rival and take the series in the first two games. The offense has been electric all weekend long while the pitching has been strong. Something that really helped was Prystajko getting Friday off. She was able to come into Saturday’s game fresh and ready to go for however long as needed.
“Yeah, you know, that was part of our calculus on who, like, the pitching plan today and starting Zoe,” Allister said of that extra rest for Prystajko. “And you know, also part of the reason why took her out there at the end and got Anna in, getting back to the top of the order, you know, play a team that, I know the scores have been a little lopsided the last two days, but tomorrow’s gonna be a hard day, so try to limit her exposure a little bit at the end of the game there, just like we were able to yesterday, is gonna be important so that we can have full staff available tomorrow.”
“Yeah, definitely feeling fresh,” Prystajko said. “It’s always great when as a team we can all compete. Every pitcher having their time. So, it’s great that I got to throw today.”
Looking ahead, Stanford will look to get the sweep on Sunday. Sunday’s game will begin at 12:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, we go back to score resets to zero,” Allister said. “So when that first pitch is thrown, score is 0-0 and got to win the game.”
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