SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The No. 15 Cardinal bounced back from a loss on Saturday in a big way, winning 14-4 at Sacramento State in five innings. The win pushed Stanford to 33-9 on the season, with 14 run rules and 15 games with 10 or more runs scored.
The Cardinal struck quickly, plating four runs on four hits in the top of the first. The runs in a variety of ways, the Taryn Kern doubling and Emily Jones bunting for a hit before River Mahler brought a run in with a sacrifice fly. Jade Berry singled in Jones to make it 2-0, then Kyra Chan tripled to bring in Berry and make it 3-0.
Joie Economides drove in Chan with an RBI groundout to make it 4-0 heading into the Hornets’ first at-bats.
Chan’s triple pushed her hitting streak to 20 games, the longest active streak in the NCAA and the longest by a Stanford hitter since at least 2011.
Six more came around to score in the second, with Jones singling in a pair before Mahler crushed a two-run homer to center. The long ball was Mahler’s eighth of the season, and made it 8-0.
Two more came across on RBI singles from Caelan Koch and Kylie Chung, pushing the lead to 10-0.
Sacramento State scored their first run in the bottom of the second, with a leadoff home run to make it 10-1.
The Card kept the runs coming in the third, with Berry driving in three on her 12th home run of the season to make it 13-1.
Mahler added another sacrifice fly in the fourth, making it 14-1. The Hornets rallied for three runs in the fourth, cutting the lead to 14-4.
Freshman Zoe Prystajko picked up the win in the circle, striking out a career-best eight in four innings pitched.
The Cardinal returns to Stanford Stadium on Friday to kick off a three-game series with Virginia at 6:00 p.m. PT. Tickets are available at Tickets.GoStanford.com, and the game will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.
POSTGAME NOTES:
- Stanford moves to 33-9 (11-7) on the season.
- Junior Kyra Chan extended her hitting streak to 20 games.
- Junior River Mahler hit her eighth home run of the season, tied for the fourth-most on the team and extending a career high.
- Sophomore Jade Berry hit her 12th home run of the season, the second-most on the team.
- Senior Dani Hayes picked up her first two hits of the season, finishing 2-for-2 with a double.
- Freshman Zoe Prystajko earned the win in the circle, striking out a career-high eight batters.
- The offensive output is the 15th time this season that the Cardinal has scored 10 or more runs.
- Stanford has now won 14 games this season via run rule.