TUCSON, Ariz. – A historic series-clinching victory on Saturday concluded the regular season for Stanford softball. The Cardinal stranded the winning run at second in the seventh in a 4-3 victory at Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium.
The win clinches fourth place in the Pac-12 for Stanford (36-19, 11-13 Pac-12) – the first time finishing in the top four of the conference since finishing fourth in 2013. The 11 conference victories are the most for the Cardinal since 2013 (13).
Stanford's victory also clinches the first series victory over Arizona in Tucson in program history and is only the second series victory in program history.
Arizona (33-20, 8-15 Pac-12) threatened to walk the game off with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh. A deep double to the wall in left center, which just got past the glove of a diving Taylor Gindlesperger, brought a run home, but Dani Hayes made the throw to Emily Young in time to hold the game-tying run at third.
With two runners in scoring position in a one run game, Alana Vawter fielded a hard-hit ground ball back to the circle cleanly and threw Paige Dimler out at first to end the game and preserve the Stanford victory.
On the day, the Wildcats left nine runners on base.
For the second straight day, the Cardinal opened the game with runs in the first two innings to take an early lead on the Wildcats. Gindlesperger opened the game by reaching on an error in the leadoff spot, and she scored on an outfield single from Aly Kaneshiro.
Kaneshiro has five RBI in her last seven games. Gindlesperger scored twice while Sydnee Huff was 3-for-4 at the plate.
Stanford maintained its pressure on the Arizona defense in the top of the second. Emily Schultz reached on a leadoff hit by pitch, and she reached second on a wild pitch. Huff doubled to left center to push Schultz across the plate, but the Cardinal offense stalled after Johnna Schroeder was thrown out at the plate during Huff's double. Huff now has 10 doubles on the season – twice as many as her 2021 total.
The Wildcats responded with a run in the bottom of the second to cut Stanford's lead in half. Three singles and a sacrifice bunt pushed the run across the plate, but Alana Vawter induced a ground out to Emily Young at shortstop to strand two runners and end the inning.
Vawter struck out three batters to zero walks to pick up her 22nd victory of the season – matching her total from last season.
Stanford now awaits its postseason fate with the NCAA Selection Show, Sunday at 4 p.m. on ESPN2.