STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford handed No. 3/4 Alabama its first loss on the year with a 4-1 decision and earned a convincing 9-5 victory against Pacific on Saturday at Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium.
The Cardinal (6-3) was excellent defensively and showcased a variety of ways it can produce runs in both contests.
Leah White paced the Cardinal offensively on the day, going 4-for-7 (.571) with three RBI, two triples and a double. Haley Snyder (5-3) logged a majority of the time in the circle, striking out three while permitting five runs on 14 hits in 11.0 innings.
Stanford opened the day with a strong performance against Alabama. White led the Cardinal with two hits, while Kayla Bonstrom, Kylie Sorenson and Tylyn Wells registered one apiece.
Madi Schreyer got Stanford off to a good start in the circle, allowing one run on four hits and a walk with two strikeouts in 3.0 innings. She was replaced in the top of the fourth inning by Haley Snyder (4-3) who shut out the Crimson Tide (10-1) the remainder of the game to earn her fourth win on the season.
Snyder notched two strikeouts and permitted three hits and three walks in 4.0 innings.
Stanford got off to a quick start in the first inning when Lauren Bertoy led off with a walk and was brought home on an RBI-double by White.
Alabama responded in the top of the second by loading the bases and bringing home a run to knot the game at 1-1. However, Schreyer halted the rally with a strikeout and a putout to close the inning.
Bonstrom added one of Stanford’s most impressive defensive highlights in the third inning when she fielded a grounder to her right at first base and dove for the bag to beat the runner.
The Cardinal added a run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to extend its lead.
Bonstrom drilled a double in the left-center outfield gap in the fifth inning and was brought home by Sorenson when she hammered a double of her own off the left-field wall to give the Cardinal a 3-1 advantage.
Wells led off the sixth with a single through the right side of the infield. She capitalized on a wild pitch to move to second and advanced to third when Alabama failed to retrieve the ball quickly.
Wells gave the Cardinal a 4-1 lead when she came home on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze with Bertoy laying down the bunt.
Alabama continued to threaten offensively in the sixth and seventh innings but Snyder and the defense remained poised to secure the win.
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Stanford had trouble getting going early against Pacific but exploded during the middle frames to earn a convincing 9-5 decision.
Snyder threw the first complete game of her collegiate career, permitting four earned runs on 11 hits and three walks. The freshman was cool under pressure, regularly pitching out of jams to keep Stanford in control.
White, Wells and Bessie Noll logged two hits apiece against Pacific (3-7) to lead the Cardinal.
The Tigers jumped out to an early lead, registering a run in the second and third innings to go up 2-0. Stanford responded in the third when Roulund belted a double to the left-centerfield gap to bring home Sorenson.
Noll followed with a single through the left side of the infield that brought Roulund around and knotted the game at 2-2.
Stanford did a majority of its damage in the fourth inning, batting through the lineup to produce five runs. White opened the scoring with an RBI-triple and scored on a throwing error by Pacific’s centerfielder.
After Bonstrom walked, Sorenson doubled down the leftfield line to pick up the RBI and extend Stanford’s lead to 5-2.
Noll capped the Cardinal’s scoring in the fourth with a two-RBI double to right-center field that brought Sorenson and Roulund around the bases.
Stanford added to its lead in the fifth when White hit her second triple of the game to bring in Wells. Bonstrom followed with a triple of her own down the right-field line to score White and stretch Stanford’s lead to 9-2.
Pacific continued to battle and cut the Cardinal’s lead to 9-5 in the sixth inning when Nicole Zapotoczny hit a three-run home run to deep left field.
Snyder remained focus in the circle and limited the Tigers to one hit the remainder of the game.
Stanford concludes play at the Nike Invitational on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. (PT) when it takes on Cal Poly.