STANFORD, Calif. – For the sixth game in a row, the No. 20 Stanford softball team wrapped up a win early. The Cardinal topped UC Riverside 9-1, and Portland State 16-5. Both games ended in the fifth inning via run rule as the Cardinal moved to 8-0 on the season. The wins continue the team’s best start to the season since starting 13-0 in 2014.
The Cardinal bats again struck early, thanks to an Ava Gall double in the bottom of the first. The RBI shot off the right-field wall drove in Taryn Kern from second, making it a 1-0 game.
UC Riverside quickly scored an unearned run in the top of the third to tie it, but Stanford was able to retake the lead in the bottom half. After back-to-back hits from Emily Jones and River Mahler put runners on the corners, Jones raced home as the throw went to second in an unsuccessful attempt to catch the stealing Mahler.
Kylie Chung exited after three innings of work, allowing just the one unearned run on one hit. The win puts her at 3-0 on the season.
The Cardinal broke through in the bottom of the fourth, posting five runs on six hits to stretch the lead to 7-1. Joie Economides doubled in a run, then Caelan Koch’s first home run of the year made it 5-1. Jones followed it up two batters later with a solo shot for her first homer of the season, making it 6-1. To round out the inning, Gall singled in another run to give her two runs driven in in the game.
Taryn Kern walked it off in the bottom of the fifth, driving in two with a bases-loaded single to make it a 9-1 final. The win was the team’s fifth-straight run-rule victory.
In the late game against Portland State, Stanford fell behind 1-0 after the top of the first. But as has been a pattern this season, the Cardinal bats immediately answered.
Kern led off with her fourth home run of the season to tie it, then Gall hit a two-run bomb to make it a 3-1 lead.
Portland State answered back with a run to cut the lead to 3-2, and again the Cardinal responded. This time with a six-run inning.
Jones and Economides each hit home runs, and Gall singled in a run to push the lead to 9-2 heading into the third, but Portland State was again able to answer and make it 9-4. In the home half of the third, Mahler hit her second double of the night to bring in two and push the lead to 11-4.
An RBI groundout from Allie Clements made it 12-4, and Mahler scampered home on a wild pitch for a 13-4 scoreline.
Prystajko exited after three innings of work, allowing four runs on six hits to earn the win.
The onslaught kept coming in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to Sydney Boulaphinh hitting her third home run of the season. Before the inning was over, Ella Murchison hit her first career homer to make it a 16-4 lead.
Portland State would add a lone run in the top of the fifth to make it a 16-5 final.
Stanford wraps up the Cardinal Classic tomorrow with a 1:30 p.m. PT game against UC Davis. Tickets are available at Tickets.GoStanford.com, and the game can be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
POSTGAME NOTES:
- Stanford moved to 8-0, the best start since the team went 13-0 to start the 2014 season.
- The wins extended a streak of six-straight run-rule wins for Stanford.
- Junior Taryn Kern extended her hitting streak to open up the season, hitting in all eight games.
- Senior Kylie Chung picked up her third win of the season, setting a new career best for single season wins.
- Junior Emily Jones hit her first home run of the season against UC Riverside, then followed it up with another against Portland State to match her total from all of 2024.
- Freshman Zoe Prystajko earned her third win of the season against Portland State.
- Junior Ella Murchison made her first career hit a home run, going yard in the fourth inning against Portland State.
- Nine different Stanford hitters have hit a home run this season, five of whom have hit multiple.
- Through eight games, Kern leads the team with four home runs.
- The Cardinal hit eight home runs as a team across both games today.
-GoStanford.com-