On Saturday, No. 16 Stanford softball fell to No. 22 Virginia at home by a final score of 9-4. Courtney Layne (4-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cavaliers in a relief role while Eden Bigham (7) got the save. Kylie Chung (11-5) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role. Virginia improves to 35-15 overall and 14-9 in the ACC while Stanford falls to 34-10 overall and 12-8 in the ACC.

BOX SCORE: Virginia at Stanford-Saturday, April 26th

“Yeah, I don’t think we’ve really played our best softball yet,” Stanford head coach Jessica Allister said after the game. “You know, I think I was proud of us as finding a way on a day where maybe we didn’t play all that well yesterday to come out and get a win…We didn’t necessarily play a very good game today, either. So I think going into Sunday with an opportunity to win the series, given the way we’ve competed thus far this weekend isn’t a bad thing, but we’re gonna need to play better tomorrow to give ourselves a chance.”

Virginia scored in the top of the 1st inning as MC Eaton hit an RBI double to left field to bring home Kelly Ayer. Virginia would add another run in the top of the 3rd inning as Sydney Hartgrove hit an RBI single to bring home Sarah Coon. That made it 2-0.

Stanford answered in the bottom of the 3rd as Kyra Chan hit a three-run home run to bring home River Mahler and Taryn Kern. That gave Stanford a 3-2 lead. Unfortunately for Stanford, Virginia struck right back in the top of the 4th inning as Ayer hit a three-run homer to bring home Jade Hylton and Kailyn Jones. That made it 5-3. Virginia later added two more runs in the top of the 6th inning as Hylton went yard after which Coon hit an RBI single, making it 7-3. Stanford added a run in the bottom of the 6th to make it 7-4 as Caelan Koch hit a home run to right field.

In the top of the 7th inning, Virginia was able to add a couple more runs to make it 9-4, putting a lot of pressure on Stanford. Stanford was unable to answer in the bottom of the 7th, making it a 9-4 final.

For Stanford, this was a disappointing result. Their pitching staff Kylie Chung, Alyssa Houston, and Zoe Prystajko all struggled in this one. And then the bats weren’t there as they only had five hits. That just isn’t going to get it done.

“We gotta keep the ball in the park for sure,” Allister said of the pitching. “You know, there’s a couple situations where we’re trying to pitch around some people and we’re not. That’s a mistake. We’ve gotta be a little smarter there. And then we got to, you know, execute better pitches. You know, credit to them. I think we left some of those pitches and they got a hold of them.

“Sure I agree with that and we can be a little bit better there, but I think the story is our offense. Like, we need to be better offensively. I think five hits, seven hits, whatever it is in two days, seven hits in two days, like we’re better than that. And we’re just throwing away at-bats right now and there’s a little bit too much frustration and you gotta get over that…No, I don’t think it’s a patience issue. I think this game is a game that will test you emotionally because hitting is a hard skill. And I think right now we just need to have a little bit more resolve and self-belief, which allows you to get off good swings and good pitches and take the other ones, but we’re, got some people riding the emotional roller coaster right now and that’s a sure fire way to not be successful.”

At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this game and look to take the series on Sunday. That will begin at 12:00 PM PT on ACCNX.

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