Recap: No. 24 Stanford takes the series against No. 5 Florida State
On Saturday, No. 24 Stanford softball defeated No. 5 Florida State by a final score of 7-2, taking the series after winning the first game on Friday 9-8. Stanford scored all seven of their runs in the bottom of the 4th inning with Sydney Boulaphinh hitting a three-run home run as the biggest play. Ava Bulanti (3-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role, pitching 3.1 innings while Bella Dimitrijevic (5-1) was the losing pitcher for the Seminoles in a starting role. Stanford improves to 25-12 and 11-6 in the ACC while Florida State falls to 36-6 overall and 12-2 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Florida State at Stanford-Saturday, April 11th
“Yeah, it’s great,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said of the series win. “They’re a really good ball club and they’re a really good ball club in all three aspects of the game. They can pitch, they can hit, they obviously defend very, very well. So to come out and you know, play two good, really good games, I think a piece today that I’m really proud of is we weren’t perfect by any stretch. Like, you see three errors up there, but we didn’t let it snowball and we didn’t crumble and we pitched ourselves out of some sticky situations, made some big defensive plays when we needed to and continued to compete. So, yeah, good series win, but got another game tomorrow and we want that one, too.”
The Seminoles got off to a good start as Isa Torres hit a home run to deep left field in the opening at-bat off Alyssa Houston. That made it a 1-0 game. With Ava Bulanti in the circle in the top of the 4th inning, Florida State added one more run as Bella Ruggiero doubled to left field to bring home Kennedy Harp. That made it a 2-0 lead for the Seminoles.
In the bottom of the 4th inning, as I said, Stanford scored all seven of their runs. What I didn’t say is all seven runs were scored with two outs. Here is a breakdown of how that happened:
River Mahler was walked after which Jade Berry flied out to left field. Joie Economides then popped up to shallow left field for the second out. Ironically, after a mound visit, Stanford took advantage. Ava Gall doubled to deep center field to bring home Mahler, making it a 2-1 game. Addyson Sheppard then got walked, sparking a second mound visit. Sydney Boulaphinh then homered to deep right field to bring home Gall and Sheppard. That made it 4-2 with Stanford now in front.
“I just saw, from adjusting from my first at-bat, I was under everything and I knew she was a rise ball pitcher,” Boulaphinh said of her home run. “So I knew I needed to get on top of this pitch and just trusting my swing. Just adjusting with my eyes a little bit. I was on time for that. For sure.”
At this point, Florida State made a pitching change as Jazzy Francik came in to relive Dimitrijevic. That didn’t do much to stop the bleeding as Taryn Kern got walked after which Emily Jones singled to left field to advance Kern to second. Kyra Chan then got walked to load up the bases. Mahler then singled to second base to bring home Kern and Jones. That made it 6-2. Berry then singled down the left field line to bring home Chan and advance Mahler to second base. That made it 7-2. Economides then grounded out to short stop to end the inning.
“Yeah, I thought we had been getting some decent swings off and I thought, you know, we were close to catching up to the up spin,” Allister said of their 4th inning success. “We were just a little bit late. She’s got a little bit of like a unorthodox windup without a backswing. So, it speeds you up just a little bit and I could tell that we were sped up, but we were starting to get better on time. I thought Syd’s first at-bat, she got off some good swings. I know she struck out, but she just missed a couple. So I think Shep drawing the walk ahead of it was huge and you know, she got off a good swing on a good pitch.”
“Yeah that was awesome,” Boulaphinh added. “Just building off each other is a big thing that we take pride in and I think just resetting each pitch, no matter the outcome, no matter what the last out was. I think just going in there, knowing that we have each other’s back, so just relying on each other is a big thing.”
From there, Stanford would go on to win the game 7-2 as the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings were scoreless for both teams. Zoe Prystajko would pitch the final 1.2 innings, coming in to relieve Bulanti. It was a bit of an odd game with all the runs for Stanford coming in one inning, but if you’re them, you’ll take a series win over a top five team any way you can get it.
“Well one, I think that’s, you know, what a fantastic start by Alyssa Houston,” Allister said of the pitching. “And as we like continue to like build her back up and get reacclimated to everything, that’s an awesome start. Ava Bulanti, fantastic out there again today and then I think, Zoe coming in and shutting the door like, we know she can do that. And I thought it was good for her to get back on the horse. I think we’ve asked her to do that a lot throughout the season and that can be really hard to be put in those situations over and over again because at some point you’re going to fail. And you’re gonna remember it more so than other situations, but I thought she was ready. She did a great job. So the reason we’re I guess navigating that is Bulanti was doing a great job. And there were a couple people in that lineup that we thought she was a really good matchup, too and we didn’t want to lose the ability to re-enter her.”
“I think just trusting my stuff, knowing that my pitchers did one heck of a job before, so I could just go in one time through the lineup and just do what I did yesterday,” Prystajko said of the key to closing it out. “I think it’s amazing. I think we’re finally playing where we know we can play, which is great. Not anything different than any other team but feels good to play where we’re supposed to.”
What made this win extra impressive for Stanford was their ability come out and play a great game despite having to deal with uncertain weather. The game was pushed back 70 minutes due to rain, but they didn’t let that stop them. It was cold and slightly drizzly all night long, but they did a great job of pushing through and doing what they needed to win.
“Yeah, it’s something that we fortunately don’t have to deal with all that often out here,” Allister said of weather delays. “We’re blessed with pretty good weather most of the time. So it’s a good thing to practice. I think I told them after the game yesterday like you gotta go home and go to sleep and know that we’re gonna play tomorrow. We gotta show up to the ballpark ready to play and I thought they did. I thought we had a good BP session. I thought they had a great time in the locker room hanging out together and then when it was go-time, they were ready to go. So, you just gotta stay in the mindset of we’re going to play.”
“Yeah, I think one of our strengths is that we’re incredibly adaptable,” Prystajko said. “Even between last year and not having a field, having it in the football stadium to this year, like one of the things Coach Allister loves about us is how adaptable we are. So, this isn’t, like anything else, just waiting for it to play.”
Up next for Stanford is game three on Sunday. That will begin at 2:00 PM PT on ACCNX. Even though they have the series won, Stanford would still like to get the sweep and end the series on a high note. It’ll be interesting to see how well they carry the momentum from Friday and Saturday into the series finale.
“I think just not letting our guard down, just acting like these past two games, like maybe just didn’t happen in some ways,” Boulaphinh said looking ahead to Sunday. “Like, play every pitch like we want to win every pitch. Not act like we just won the past two games. It’s a new game. So anything can happen.”
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