April 16, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - The No. 3 Stanford women's softball team snapped a three-game losing streak with a doubleheader sweep of non-conference opponent UC Santa Barbara tonight at the Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium. The Cardinal won the first game 7-2, and the second 8-3.
Stanford improves to 35-8 on the year while the Gauchos fall to 18-29.
The Cardinal struck early in game one scoring two runs in the bottom of the first. After Robin Walker singled to open up the inning, Jessica Mendoza doubled to score Walker. Mendoza would later score on a ground out by Jessica Allister.
Stanford scored two more in the fourth when Walker again singled to open up the inning. Mendoza followed with her 12th homerun of the season to put the Cardinal up 4-0.
With two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth, freshman Leah Nelson hit her second homerun of the season off the scoreboard in leftfield to put Stanford up 7-0.
The Gauchos would score two unearned runs in the top of the seventh before reliever Elizabeth Bendig closed the door for the Cardinal win.
Starting pitcher Tori Nyberg picked up her 20th win of the season, throwing four innings of shutout ball. Nyberg allowed only two hits and tallied six strikeouts on the evening. Bendig picked up her first save on the year, pitching three innings of work.
Walker and Mendoza each collected two hits and two runs scored on the evening with Mendoza and Nelson tallying three RBI as well.
In game two, UC Santa Barbara took the early lead when they scored a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the third. Stanford would answer with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. All three runs were scored with two outs as Nelson, Bendig and Jessica Draemel came across the plate for the Cardinal.
The Gauchos would tie up the game in the top of the sixth but Stanford answered with five runs in the bottom of the inning to take a commanding 8-3 advantage. The Cardinal did not have an extra base hit in this inning, instead hit six singles and had two walks while batting around the order.
Junior Maureen LeCocq (14-4) pitched a complete game for Stanford. LeCocq scattered six hits over seven innings with four strikeouts in the victory. Gaucho Katie Junge took the loss, giving up eight runs on 12 hits over six innings.
Robin Walker, Kira Ching and Elizabeth Bendig each collected two hits for Stanford while Sarah Beeson recorded two RBI. Every single starter for Stanford had a hit on the evening.
The Cardinal return to action on Friday, April 19 when they host No. 1 Arizona at 7 p.m. at the Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium.