SEATTLE – An outstanding pitching performance by Stanford's Carolyn Lee was spoiled by a walk-off home run by No. 7 Washington's Kirstyn Thomas, propelling the Huskies a 1-0 victory Friday evening.
Lee (8-18) was excellent in her 12th complete game of the season, holding a potent Huskies (39-10, 12-7 Pac-12) offense to one run on six hits and one walk with five strikeouts. During the third through sixth innings, Lee retired 11 of 12 batters. The only batter to reach base during that span did so on a fielding error.
The Cardinal (18-28, 1-18 Pac-12) had its opportunities offensively, producing baserunners in all seven innings but could not get the hit needed to push across a run.
Stanford made Huskies starting pitcher, Taran Alvelo (24-6) work for her outs, pushing the freshman to throw 127 pitches. However, she got the outs when needed to keep the Cardinal off the board and racked up eight strikeouts.
Stanford's best opportunities came in the first, fourth and seventh innings. The Cardinal loaded the bases with one out in the first inning but the next two batters struck out to end the frame.
The Cardinal had a pair of runners with one out in the fourth inning but back-to-back fly outs to center field ended the rally.
Kylie Sorenson extended her hitting streak to 10 games to lead off the top of the seventh inning and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kristina Inouye. However, Stanford was again unable to capitalize with the next two batters being retired in order.
The Cardinal will look to even the series Saturday at 1 p.m. (PT). The game will be streamed online and live statistics will be available via GoStanford.com.
