Recap: Stanford Softball season ends in Stillwater regional

Over the weekend, Stanford softball’s season came to an end in the Stillwater regional of the NCAA tournament hosted by Oklahoma State. They defeated Princeton 8-2 in their opening game on Friday, lost to Oklahoma State 7-2 on Saturday, defeated Princeton again 13-5 on Saturday to avoid elimination before falling to Oklahoma State 11-5 to end their season on Sunday. A win over Oklahoma State on Sunday would have forced a second game on Sunday, but alas it was not to be.

BOX SCORE: Stanford at Oklahoma State-Sunday, May 17^th

The game on Sunday was close for six of the seven innings. Stanford got off to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1^st as Emily Jones went yard to deep left field to make it 1-0. In the top of the 2^nd, Oklahoma State evened things up as Amanda Hasler scored via an error (E6). In the top of the 3^rd, Hasler hit an RBI double to bring home Lexi McDonald to make it 2-1.

In the top of the 4^th, Zoe Prystajko replaced Aylssa Houston in the pitching circle for Stanford. In that same inning, Karli Godwin hit a sac fly to center field to bring home Aubrey Jones. That made it 3-1. In the bottom of the 4^th, Jade Berry hit a sac fly to center field to bring home Kyra Chan. That made it 3-2.

Where things went off the rails for Stanford was in the 5^th inning. The Cowboys scored six runs, breaking the game wide open. Hasler hit a two-run blast to deep left field off Prystajko making it 5-2. And then later on in the inning with Ava Bulanti pitching and the bases loaded, Claire Timm hit a grand slam to deep right field with one out, making it 11-2.

At that point, the game was basically over. Taryn Kern hit a sac fly to bring home Sydney Boulaphinh to make it 11-3. With Anna Brewer pitching for Stanford in the top of the 6^th, Oklahoma State added two runs via walk with the bases loaded and then a wild pitch. That made it 13-3. Stanford would score two more runs in the bottom of the 6^th to make it 13-5 as Ava Gall hit a two-run blast to deep center field. 13-5 would be the final score as neither team scored in the 7^th inning.

For Stanford, this was a disappointing way to end the season. There’s no shame in losing on the road in a regional to a good team like Oklahoma State, but ideally, they would have at least forced a winner take all game on Sunday. Especially since they actually defeated Oklahoma State twice at the very beginning of the year. They could have absolutely evened things up, but alas, that 5^th inning ended up being their undoing.

Overall, this was still a good season for the Cardinal. They got to a regional final and opened up a brand new stadium that is one of the nicest softball stadiums in the country. They have a lot of talented pieces returning next season and should have a real chance to get homefield advantage in a regional and make an even deeper run next year.

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