LOUISVILLE – The No. 16 Cardinal fell 9-8 to Louisville tonight, dropping to 11-6 on the season and 1-2 in ACC play. Stanford entered the seventh inning with an 8-5 lead, but the Cardinals rallied to walk off with a 9-8 win.
After a hitless two innings to open the game, the Stanford bats broke through in the third. Emily Jones singled, then reached third on a Taryn Kern double off the top of the wall in center field.
Then with two outs, clutch hitting by Addyson Sheppard and Kyra Chan made it a 3-0 lead. Sheppard singled to bring in Jones and Kern, and advanced to second on the play. Chan singled to bring in Sheppard in the next at-bat, giving Cardinal starter Anna Brewer a three-run cushion.
Kern hit another ball hard in her next at-bat, clearing the fence this time for her sixth home run of the season to make it a 4-0 Cardinal lead.
Louisville scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut into the lead, but Stanford answered right back in the top of the sixth to push the lead back to four runs.
Sydney Boulaphinh brought in a run on a sacrifice fly, then a pair came around to score on heads-up baserunning. Jordana King, running for Joie Economides, raced home after tagging up from second on a foulout. King took another base after sliding into third, reaching home thanks to a throwing error at third.
Then in the next at-bat, Adriana Callahan, running for Ava Gall, scored on a wild pitch when Louisville was intentionally walking Kern. Stanford finished the inning with three runs on two hits, and went into the home half of the sixth with a 7-3 lead.
The Cardinals pushed a pair of runs across in the sixth, cutting the lead to two runs at 7-5.
Izzy Cacatian doubled in a run in the top of the seventh to make it 8-5 heading into the home half of the inning.
Louisville scored four in the seventh to walk the game off 9-8.
Stanford is back home for the next two weekends, hosting Pittsburgh for three games beginning on Friday. All games will be streamed on ACC Network Extra, and tickets are available at Tickets.GoStanford.com.
POSTGAME NOTES:
- Senior Taryn Kern’s fifth-inning home run was her sixth of the season and 32nd of her career, moving her into a tie with Jessica Allister for the sixth-most in program history.
- Stanford scored seven or more runs for the 10th time this season, and second game in a row.