Stanford women’s softball sweeps Syracuse, remains undefeated at home

Stanford softball (17-3, 5-1 ACC) stretched out a three-game winning streak with a hard fought 4-3 victory over Syracuse this Friday. Playing in Stanford Stadium as the Stanford Softball Stadium is under construction seems to be a good luck charm for the team, as they have won every single home game this season.

The offense produced an early bang, with four runs, five hits and two run-producing triples by freshman infielder Joie Economides and junior infielder Taryn Kern in just the second inning. 

Simultaneously, senior pitcher Kylie Chung held Syracuse to two hits and zero runs for the first four innings, with two three up, three down innings.

After the game, Kern attributed Stanford’s success to “folks having quality at-bats, moving runners [and] keeping it simple.”

Head coach Jessica Allister agreed, citing “putting up the four [and] Kylie’s start” as Stanford’s greatest strength during the game.

However, this game would not end without drama. Just as it seemed Stanford had won, Syracuse rallied, tallying two runs in a strong fifth inning. True freshman pitcher Zoe Prystajko and a Cardinal defense ready for revenge for the fifth inning held Syracuse to one run over two more eventful innings, closing out the game by stranding three Syracuse players.

Prystajko explained her defensive stand as, “the utmost confidence in my ability to throw well and in my defense to back me up.”

Both Kern and Allister praised Prystajko, with Kern saying she was “proud of [Prystajko] for being tough in there” while Allister said that “the composure [for Prystajko] was great, and that’s going to be really important from now on.”

Overall, the team seemed proud of their performance, but acknowledged that they could make improvements.

“It’s a good start,” Allister said. “We left some runs on the board, and I think we could have put 8 up. We maybe [need to] have a little bit better offensive production.”

“We got a few runs in the second inning, but we’ve got to put the nail in the coffin and hammer it in.” Kern said. “Even though we’re up, we got to play like we’re down.”

Avoiding a close game was firmly on the minds of Stanford’s players as they prepared for their rematch with Syracuse on Saturday and Sunday. Stanford secured back-to-back wins following Friday with 5-1 and 9-0 victories and is well on their way to surpassing last year’s already strong performance.

“We want to have a great conference season, win every series,” Kern said.

Next, softball will face Cal Baptist University (13-12, 2-1 WCC) on Thursday at Stanford Stadium. The matchup is expected to start at 4:30 p.m.

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