This year’s Pac-12 is full of talent: three of the four best teams from the first round of the NCAA rankings are at the conference. But if this weekend is a sign of the future, the cardinal could soon be ranked there among UCLA No. 1, Washington No. 2, and Arizona No. 4.
Led by a strong pitching performance and a trio of juniors with a batting average of at least 500 each, the cardinal ended his first game weekend with a 4-0 record and high hopes for a season that could catapult Stanford into the discussion of elite softball Programs on the west coast.
On Friday, the cardinal took on the Trojans against San Jose State (SJSU) for the first of three games within 24 hours. While SJSU scored the first goal on a single above in the first round, Stanford showed it would not be passed. With a triple from junior midfielder Taylor Gindlesperger and a single from junior shortstop Emily Young, Stanford took a 2-1 lead at the bottom of the first one he would never lose.
The game remained close and goalless for a few more innings until Gindlesperger’s homer to midfield, which broke open the floodgates. RBI singles by Emily Schultz, Junior First Baseman, and Montana Dixon, catcher for doctoral students, put the cardinal 5-1 ahead and destroyed all hopes of the SJSU for a comeback.
While the Trojans scored a 3-run game in sixth rank, Stanford’s big hit was seen again in sixth rank, with a 2-RBI single from Schultz, a triple from Sydney Steele and a single from Elieli Spirakis, infielder of a PhD student to bring the bottom line to 9-2.
A total of nine different players registered at least one hit for the cardinal in the first game, a total of 15. In the meantime, the second Alana Vawter led a heavy pitching effort: she allowed only five hits and one error while she batters nine in six innings hit.
On Saturday the cardinal showed twice that the game on Friday was no accident. In the first game, Stanford led the scoring with a single from Schultz that brought home right fielder Teaghan Cowles, but SJSU determined not to get into a hole and linked the game 1-1 in the top of the second . It was Schultz again, who got into the clutch with a homer from two runs in the third, followed by an RBI triple in the fifth, bringing the result to 4-1.
At the end of sixth place, Sydnee Huff, a triple from sophomore second baseman, and a sacrificial fly from Cowles brought the result to 6-1, which is where it would stay. Senior pitcher Maddy Dwyer was on the mound for the entire game, allowing only 4 hits while he scored eight.
In the second game of the double header on Saturday, SJSU could only come on the scoreboard in the seventh inning, as newcomer Regan Krause only allowed 6 hits in seven innings. Meanwhile, the Cardinal scored a goal every inning except the third, with an RBI single from Young in the first, two more RBI singles from Cowles in the second and fourth, a run that was that of Christina Inouye, the third base participant, in fifth and doubles was brought in by Gindlesperger and Schultz in sixth to seal the game. A total of six cardinal hits in this game and five brought at least one RBI to a 7-1 win.
In Sunday’s game, the cardinal faced another opponent, the Santa Clara Broncos. The Broncos started strong, with a single from Ashley Trierweiler to left field to start the first, but Vawter subsequently knocked out the next blow, the Cardinal threw out Trierweiler’s attempt to steal the second, and Vawter knocked out the final blow. Young scored the first hit for the Cardinal with a beautiful floater that hit the gap between third and left fields. She stole the second and Schultz left, but both runners stayed on the base.
The second inning went scoreless with both teams going three and out including a nice strikeout from Vawter. The tip of the third started like the second, with Vawter scoring two hits. At the end of the third it almost got interesting. Cowles had a nice line along the third baseline that was barely called a foul and that put the Broncos off when they followed it. Gindlesperger set out to move Cowles forward and was almost safe himself, but the Cardinal ended the inning with a runner who stayed on the base.
Young tossed a clutch to Schultz to start the fourth, immediately followed by a bouncing ball to Schultz and another to the outside. Cowles caught a foul in right field to give the Broncos another three-and-out inning.
After leaving the runners on the base for two of the previous three innings, the Cardinal was determined not to make the same mistake again by the end of the fourth inning. Schultz ended the drought with a single between middle and right field at the end of the fourth. Spirakis was run to raise Vawter, who struck a sacrificial fly into the deep right field to bring Schultz to third place. Inouye hit a lovely single right between middle and left fields to bring Schultz home and eventually put the card 1-0 on the scoreboard.
Dixon continued the hit streak to hit bases with just one for Steele. Steele hit a sacrificial fly to bring Spirakis home and back to the top of the line-up in Cowles, who promptly beat first place into midfield to bring Inouye home. Gindlesperger played almost the same spot as Cowles and got Young to the point with reloaded bases, which was clearly no win for the Broncos.
On time, Young doubled in the middle, got Dixon and Cowles and brought Schultz to the point for the second time in the inning. The Broncos learned from their previous mistake in letting Young beat and made the wise decision to run Schultz in the game for a second time. The Broncos eventually caught a low fly from Spirakis to end the inning, but the damage was already done. The cardinal led 5-0.
The Broncos recorded their second hit of the game to start the fifth, but Dixon’s strong arm on the catcher again threw out an attempted theft of the runner and none of the other batters recorded a hit, as the Broncos once failed to get another Bring runners past the first base. Dixon was run at the bottom of fifth place to get loaded bases and no outs for Steele, who brought home second outfielder Kaitlyn Lim as a single player. Lim ran for Vawter and a Santa Clara mistake allowed all runners to stay safe. Junior Kate Cressey hit Cowles and hit the first baseline to score a run before freshman Chloe Doyle hit Gindlesperger and scored to bring the result to 8-0. The lead led to a grace rule victory for the cardinal, who ended the game with 8 hits and no mistakes and only allowed 2 hits.
This Stanford team is invited this year. Last year was supposed to be the year for Stanford Softball, which brought back almost every starter as of 2019, had a strong senior class in Cowles, Inouye, Dixon and pitcher Nikki Bauer, and had a highly recruited freshman class with multiple pitchers. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, all four contributors are still eligible and back, as is Spirakis, who graduated from Santa Clara last year and still has a pandemic eligibility that she’s using for the cardinal this year.
Addition of the powerful group to the hard hitting junior class with Schultz, Young and Gindlesperger; the sophomores like Vawter and Lim, who barely got a chance to show their potential last year; Stanford softball and highly recruited newbies like Krause and Doyle are playing a big role this year. The cardinal plays Cal and California Baptist University in the Stanford Invitational tournament this weekend.
