BERKELEY, Calif. – Stanford held leads in the sixth and seventh innings but could not hold on for the upset at No. 19/19 California for the second day in a row, falling to the Golden Bears 4-3.
The Cardinal (17-36, 2-21 Pac-12) did nearly all it could to upset California (37-16, 9-14 Pac-12) but was ultimately undone by a walk-off single by the Bears’ Cheyenne Cordes.
Friday’s game was eerily similar to Thursday’s opener. Parallels included the game being tied 0-0 through five innings, Kayla Bonstrom breaking the tie with a leadoff home run in the top of the sixth inning and California erasing a one-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning to earn a walk-off win.
Kylie Sorenson (4-11) was excellent for the Cardinal in all areas of the game, pitching every inning and going 2-for-3 at the plate, including scoring the then-go-ahead run in the top of the seventh. She limited California to four runs on nine hits and four walks with one strikeout in 6.1 innings.
Bonstrom continued her monster season, going 2-for-3 with a home run, a double and three RBIs. Bonstrom’s home run was her 13th of the season – tying her for fifth-most in a single season in Stanford history. It was Bonstrom’s 43rd career double, tying her for 10th-most all-time in Stanford history.
Tylyn Wells had a strong showing at the plate, going 2-for-3 for the second day in a row. Kaitlin Schaberg was great defensively at shortstop, making a series of highlight-worthy stops, and went 1-for-3 with a double.
California was the first to apply pressure in the bottom of the second inning, generating runners on first and second and one out. However, Sorenson forced a ground ball up the middle that Schaberg made a great play to get to and turned a 6-3 double play to get out of the inning.
The Bears put two runners on base again in the bottom of the third inning with two outs but Sorenson was able to get the next batter to ground out to end the inning.
Sorenson did her best to help her own cause, leading off the top of the fourth inning with a single. Kayla Bonstrom was hit by a pitch in the following at-bat to put runners on first and second with no outs. However, the Cardinal could not move the runners around to produce any runs.
Schaberg opened the top of the fifth inning by drilling a double to the left-center field gap. Wells singled with one out to move Schaberg to third. Sorenson nearly gave Stanford the lead, drilling a line drive to the outfield that went directly to the centerfielder for the final out of the inning.
For the second day in a row, Bonstrom scored the game’s first run with a leadoff home run in the sixth inning to right field.
California responded in the bottom half off the inning with its first two batters reached base. Sorenson forced a grounder back to the circle in the next at bat and turned a 1-5-3 double play.
The Bears’ Taurie Pogue stepped to the plate with a runner on second and hit a two-run home run to left field to give California a 2-1 lead.
Stanford continued to battle and Wells led off the top of the seventh inning with a double to left field. Sorenson singled to right field with one out to move Wells to third. Bonstrom hammered a double to left-center field to score Wells and Sorenson and put Stanford up 3-2.
After a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the seventh inning, California’s Jazmyn Jackson doubled up the middle to put runners on second and third. Britt Vonk followed with a sacrifice fly to centerfield to knot the game at 3-3.
Cordes stepped to the plate with runners on first and second and hit a single to leftfield to bring in Jackson from second and secure the walk-off win.
Stanford will look to end its season with a victory in Sunday’s finale at 3 p.m. (PT).