CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – Stanford fell to South Carolina 6-2 Friday night in its first game at the Mary Nutter Classic.
The Cardinal (8-5) and Gamecocks (10-3) both had trouble defensively, combining for seven errors. The infield was noticeably rough with six of the seven errors occurring on groundballs to infielders.
Stanford paid the price for the extra outs, permitting three unearned runs including the game-winning run.
Despite the tough night defensively, Stanford saw a nice outing by Madi Schreyer (2-1) in the circle and three different players registering at least one hit.
Schreyer struck out four and allowed one earned run on six hits in 3.2 innings. Haley Snyder (6-4) came in as relief and did well to limit South Carolina’s offense, striking out one and allowing two runs on four hits in 2.1 innings. Neither pitcher allowed a walk.
The Cardinal had trouble generating consistent offense but broke through in the third inning. Tylyn Wells, Leah White and Hanna Winter paced Stanford offensively with a hit apiece.
Winter and Wells led off the inning with back-to-back singles. The duo advanced to second and third when a throwing error by South Carolina’s shortstop sailed past the first baseman. White brought in the first run when she singled through the right side of the infield to bring Winter home.
Erin Ashby followed with a sacrifice fly to give Stanford a 2-1 lead. The Cardinal loaded the bases with one out but was unable to push across more runs and break the game open.
Back-to-back errors by the Cardinal in the bottom of the third inning helped the Gamecocks score two runs and retake the lead. South Carolina added a run in the fourth inning and two runs in the sixth to secure the victory.
Stanford will look to get back in the win column Saturday with games against Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. (PT) and Fresno State (7:30 p.m.).