BATON ROUGE – After posting a 7-5 victory over No. 7 LSU on Thursday to open the LSU Invitational, Stanford (8-2) notched its first shutout of the year on Friday, blanking CSUN (4-6) by a score of 2-0 from Tiger Park.
Sophomore Maddy Dwyer got the start and tossed the first 5.1 scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and two walks with two strikeouts. Dwyer, who improved to 4-1 with the win, worked around a few small jams, including stranding runners at second and third in the fourth after allowing a pair of singles to start the frame.
Dwyer handed the ball over to Kiana Pancino with one out in the sixth after issuing a walk to Megan Stevens. Pancino worked the remainder of the shutout, retiring all five batters faced, including striking out the side in order in the seventh to pick up her second save.
Montana Dixon put the Card on the board first in the first inning, lining a two-out single into centerfield to chase home Kristina Inouye. CSUN starter Elise Madison, who took the loss and fell to 1-2, retired the first two she faced in the inning, but Inouye reached on an error that kept the frame alive. A walk to Whitney Burks put two aboard and set the table for Dixon's clutch single.
Dixon struck again in the third after Stanford received a leadoff single from Emily Klingaman, who then moved to second on a wild pitch. Inouye did her job on the ensuing play, bouncing a ground ball to second to advance Klingaman. Following a Burks walk to put runners at the corners, Dixon dropped a squeeze bunt down the first base line to run the tally to 2-0.
Junior Alyssa Horeczko provided half of Stanford's four hits in the win, batting 2-for-3 with a pair of stolen bases while hitting out of the ninth spot in the order.
Stanford will get right back to play on Friday, meeting Michigan at 12:30 p.m. PT.
