Lead Image by Mike Rasay/ISIPhotos.com
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – Stanford split a pair of games Thursday night at the Mary Nutter Classic, defeating Bethune-Cookman and falling to No. 1 Florida State.
Kristina Inouye delivered an eighth inning RBI-single to complete a 4-3 comeback victory against the Wildcats (1-11). Carolyn Lee racked up a career-best eight strikeouts and Stanford (8-4) led early but could not complete the upset against the top-ranked Seminoles (11-1), falling 8-2.
Teaghan Cowles had a big day offensively, hitting .714 (5-for-7) over the two games with a triple, two runs and a walk. She also provided the defensive play of the day, throwing out two runners at home on the same play against Bethune-Cookman.
Inouye and Bessie Noll also had quality days at the plate, both going 3-for-7 (.429).
Nikki Bauer (4-1) pitched a career-high 8.0 innings and held Bethune-Cookman to three runs – none earned – on nine hits and no walks with one strikeout. Lee (4-3) started strong against Florida State, racking up seven strikeouts in the first three innings but the Seminoles rallied for two big innings to secure the win.
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Stanford produced three sacrifice flies against Bethune-Cookman before getting the deciding hit in extra innings to win, 4-3.
Lauren Bertoy led off the bottom of the second inning with a stand-up triple down the left field line. She came home on the next at-bat, a sacrifice fly to left field by Arden Pettit to give the Cardinal a 1-0 lead.
After two quick outs in the top of the third, Stanford ran into trouble, making three errors that costed three runs.
Stanford produced two-out hits in the third and fourth innings but were unable to cut into the deficit.
Cowles led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a triple to the right-center field gap. Kylie Sorenson brought her home with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to, 3-2.
Bethune-Cookman got runners to second and third with one out in the top of the sixth but Stanford's defense made a pair of nice plays to get back-to-back outs at home and keep the deficit at one run.
The Wildcats threated again in the top of the seventh inning but Cowles made the defensive play of the day, throwing out two runners at home on the same play.
With one out and a runner on second, the Wildcats singled to left field. The runner on second touched third and headed home but was thrown out at the plate by Cowles.
Pettit was catching and after applying the tag on the runner at home, threw down to third base to try to get the batter who had advanced to second on the throw home and was trying to take an extra bag.
Pettit's throw sailed a bit high over the third baseman's head. However, Cowles was backing up the play, fielded the ball and threw home where Pettit applied the tag for the second out at home on the play and third out of the inning.
Cowles continued her contributions, singling with one out in the bottom half of the inning and moved to third on a throwing error by the Wildcats. Whitney Burks hit a high fly ball to right field that allowed Cowles to score the tying run and send the game to extra innings.
After keeping Bethune-Cookman off the board in the top of the eighth, Inouye led off the inning with a single to the right-center field gap to score Noll – the international tiebreaker runner – from second and secure a 4-3 victory.
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Stanford got off to a strong start against top-ranked Florida State, holding them scoreless through the first three innings.
Stanford took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on RBI-singles by Burks and Inouye.
The lead did not last long, as the Seminoles capitalized on a two-out two-RBI bloop double down the left field line to level the score at, 2-2. Florida State added another run in the inning to take a 3-2 lead.
Florida State added to its lead with an additional run in the fourth inning to extend its lead to, 4-2.
Stanford continued to battle but could not find the hits needed to cut into the deficit.
The Seminoles doubled its run total in the top of the seventh to take a commanding 8-2 lead. The Cardinal responded with a one-out rally in the bottom half of the inning but had it halted by a double play to end the game.
Stanford will look to get back in the win column Friday at 3:30 p.m. (PT) against St. John's.
