STANFORD, Calif. – No. 22/17 Stanford opened the Louisville Slugger Classic with a win Thursday, defeating Brigham Young, 5-3.
The Cardinal (18-5) took an early lead and weathered a BYU (7-11) rally in the fifth inning to earn the victory.
Madi Schreyer (15-3) picked up her 15th win of the season in the circle, allowing three runs on seven hits, walking six and striking out six. She has thrown 12 complete games this season and holds a 1.40 ERA in 110.1 innings pitched.
The Cardinal was outstanding defensively behind Schreyer, highlighted by plays from Hanna Winter at third base and Bessie Noll in right field. Winter’s defensive gem came in the third inning when she made a split-second reaction diving play to her right to snare a hard hit ground ball from going down the left-field line. She then got to her feet and threw a dart to first base for the out.
Noll made an equally impressive play in the top of the seventh inning when she raced after a shot from BYU’s leadoff batter down the right-field line. Running to her left, Noll left her feet and got full extension to catch the ball before it got past her.
Stanford applied pressure early offensively, getting multiple baserunners in the first two innings but was unable to capitalize. The Cardinal broke through in the third inning when Leah White reached base on a lead-off single and Kayla Bonstrom delivered an RBI-double to right-center field. Bonstrom tied Winter and Jessica Plaza for a team-high two hits in the game.
Cassandra Roulund brought Bonstrom home in the next at-bat, singling up the middle to give Stanford a 2-0 advantage.
The Cardinal doubled its run total in the fourth inning after a strange sequence of plays. Tylyn Wells reached base to lead off the inning on an error by the BYU first baseman. Winter followed by hitting a ground ball to BYU’s shortstop Lauren Bell who considered throwing to first, then decided to try and get the lead runner at second. However, Bell’s throw to second went way wide to the left and rolled into the outfield, allowing Wells to score from first and Winter to reach third.
Winter reached home two batters later when BYU’s pitcher Tori Almond threw a wild pitch, putting the Cardinal up 4-0.
The Cougars responded in the top of the fifth inning by batting through their lineup and posting three runs to cut Stanford’s lead to 4-3.
Plaza provided Stanford with some extra breathing room in the bottom half of the inning when she nailed an RBI-double off the right-centerfield wall to score Erin Ashby and put the Cardinal up 5-3.
Schreyer struck out two batters in the sixth and let her defense work in the seventh to close the game and secure the victory.
Stanford will play two games on Friday beginning with Portland State at 2:30 p.m. and concluding with a 4:45 p.m. matchup against North Dakota State.