Lead Image by Karen Ambrose-Hickey
STANFORD, Calif. – Carolyn Lee held UC Davis to two hits and six Stanford players combined for 12 hits to propel the Cardinal to a convincing 9-1 victory in five innings Wednesday night.
Lee (6-5) pitched three hitless innings before giving up her first base knock in the top of the fourth. She limited the Aggies (7-13) to one run on two hits and three walks with three strikeouts in 5.0 innings.
The Cardinal's (13-8) offense started strong and never let up. Stanford jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first three innings. Four of the Cardinal's 12 hits went for extra bases, including two home runs.
Bessie Noll and Lauren Wegner had quality evenings at the plate and added to their home run totals this season. Noll went 3-for-3 with three runs, a home run, an RBI and a walk, while Wegner belted her third home run of the season as part of a 2-for-3 night with two RBIs.
Lauren Bertoy continued her hot start to the year, going 2-for-2 with two RBIs, a double and a run. Montana Dixon also went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBIs. Teaghan Cowles score a pair of runs and went 2-for-3 on the evening.
Stanford got off to a quick start with Noll and Cowles reaching base to lead off the bottom of the first inning. Bertoy brought in Noll with a single to center field to give the Cardinal a 1-0 lead.
Dixon kept the rally going with two outs, singling to left field to bring in Cowles and Bertoy, and extend Stanford's lead to 3-0.
The Cardinal continued its offensive barrage when Lauren Wegner homered to center field to lead off the bottom of the second inning. It was Wegner's third home run of the season.
After Noll singled in the following at-bat, Stanford added two more runs on back-to-back doubles by Kylie Sorenson and Bertoy, giving the Cardinal a 6-0 advantage.
The Cardinal added to its lead in the bottom of the third inning when Noll hit a two-out home run to left field. It was Noll's second homer on the year.
UC Davis loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the fourth inning and pushed across a run to cut its deficit to, 7-1.
That's all the Aggies would get, however, as Lee forced a grounder back to the circle in the following at-bat and threw out the lead runner at home. She got the next batter to hit a sharp grounder to third. Cowles fielded the ball, stepped on third and fired to first for an inning-ending double play.
Cowles made the defensive play of the game in the top of the fifth inning. The Aggies' Marissa Jauregui hit a hard ground ball headed through the left side of the infield. Cowles dove to her left to make the stop and fired to first for the out.
Stanford loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fifth and pushed across another run on a wild pitch to take an 8-1 lead.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Victoria Molina appeared to have flied out to center field to end the inning. However, catcher's interference was called, bringing in the runner from third to make the score 9-1 and secure the run-rule victory for the Cardinal.
Stanford will look to continue its momentum into the weekend when it plays host to four teams as part of the Easton Classic. The Cardinal will play five games over the weekend, beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m. (PT) against Grand Canyon.