SARATOGA, Calif. – The No. 13 Cardinal fell 11-7 to Kentucky this afternoon, moving to 5-1 on the young season.
Kentucky pounced early, plating three unearned runs off Alyssa Houston in the first. Then in the second, the Wildcats added five on seven hits to make it 8-0.
The Cardinal’s answer came in the bottom of the third, when Adriana Callahan drove in Addyson Sheppard with an RBI triple. Callahan came around to score on the next at-bat, when Taryn Kern drove her in with an RBI groundout.
Kentucky pushed the lead back to eight in the fifth, scoring two runs in the frame on just one hit.
In the home half of the inning Stanford again answered with a pair of runs, and once again it was led by the bottom of the order. Sheppard opened with a single, then Callahan moved her to third on a double. Another RBI groundout from Kern scored Sheppard, then a sacrifice fly from River Mahler made it a 10-4 game.
A solo shot from the Wildcats in the sixth pushed it back to a seven run game at 11-4.
Stanford pushed two across in the sixth, scoring on an RBI fielder’s choice before Joie Economides raced home from third on a passed ball to make it 11-6. A Jade Berry RBI in the seventh would make it an 11-7 final.
Anna Brewer finished the game in the circle for the Cardinal, tossing 5.2 innings with just two earned runs allowed.
The Card is back in action tomorrow, hosting day two of the Cardinal Classic I. Stanford starts with a 3:30 game against Cal State Fullerton at 3:30 p.m., before taking on Cal Poly at 6:00 p.m. PT. Tickets for the day are on sale at Tickets.GoStanford.com, and both games will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.
POSTGAME NOTES:
- Alyssa Houston earned her first start of the season in the circle.
- Adriana Callahan hit a double and a triple today, pushing her career statline to 3-for-5 with nine total bases in three games.
- Anna Brewer’s 5.2 innings pitched were the most of her career.