STANFORD, Calif. – Erin Ashby delivered a walk-off RBI-triple in the bottom of the seventh inning Sunday to lift No. 22/17 Stanford to a 3-2 victory over UC Davis in the final game of the Louisville Slugger Classic.
It was Youth Softball Day at Boyd and Jill Family Stadium and Ashby gave the young players in the crowd a moment to remember as she stepped to the plate with one out and Cassandra Roulund standing on first base.
After Roulund singled to left field in the at-bat before her, Ashby hit a tailing line drive down the right-field line that got past a diving UC Davis right fielder. Roulund made her way around the bases and slid head-first into home to score the game-winning run.
Ashby had a terrific tournament and finished Sunday’s game 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and a walk. She finished the weekend going 9-for-17 (.529) with six RBI, two doubles, a triple and four walks over the six games. She led the team with 13 total bases.
Kylie Sorenson (2-0) went 6.0 strong innings in the circle before Tylyn Wells (1-0) came into the game in the seventh and picked up the first win of her collegiate career.
Sorenson, who is typically Stanford’s starting shortstop, had an outstanding weekend all around. The freshman pitched in four games and went 2-0 with one save and posted a 0.88 ERA. Sorenson allowed nine hits, two earned runs, four walks and struck out six to hold opponents to a .164 batting average. She went 6-for-18 (.333) at the plate with three walks and three doubles.
Sorenson leads the team in batting average (.400), doubles (12), walks (20), total bases (49), slugging percentage (.653) and on-base percentage (.525) on the season.
Kayla Bonstrom continued to heat up at the plate this weekend, finishing 8-for-16 (.500) with six RBI, three walks and a team-high four doubles.
Stanford applied pressure on UC Davis early, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Sorenson hit a one-out double and was followed by Bonstrom who drilled a double to right-center to put the Cardinal up 1-0. After a wild pitch moved Bonstrom to third, Roulund lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to give Stanford a 2-0 advantage. Three different Aggies made appearances in the circle in the inning.
The Cardinal put two additional runners on in the first but was unable to bring them around. Stanford had multiple opportunities to stretch its lead throughout the game but was unable to capitalize, leaving runners on base in six of seven innings.
UC Davis responded in the top of the second with a run after Chandler Wagner reached base on a hit-by-pitch. A walk and stolen base put Wagner on third, and she was brought home on a sacrifice fly by Caitlin Voss, cutting Stanford’s lead to 2-1.
The score remained the same through the next three innings before UC Davis’ Kelly Zboralske knotted the score at 2-2 with a home run over the left-field fence.
The Cardinal loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning with one out but could not find the timely hit needed to break the game open.
The Aggies threatened in the top of the seventh when its second batter reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced from first to third on a wild pitch. Wells was able to retire the next two batters with the runner on third and keep the game tied heading into the bottom of the inning.
Ashby’s clutch triple in the bottom of the seventh gave the Cardinal its 22nd victory of the year as Stanford moved to 10-1 at home.
Stanford will remain home and open Pac-12 play next weekend against California. The series begins Friday at 5:30 p.m. (PT) and the teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 12:30 p.m. Both of Saturdays games will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.