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NewsvineThe No. 8 Stanford softball team continued to turn around its Pacific-10 Conference fortunes at home this weekend, run-ruling Oregon State 10-1 on Thursday night before taking a pair of pitchers’ duels against Oregon, 1-0 and 2-1, on Saturday and Sunday.
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It was Stanford’s first weekend sweep since the squad beat Wisconsin, Princeton, BYU and East Carolina the weekend after winter quarter finals in the Stanford Invitational II. The Cardinal ran into trouble at the beginning of the Pac-10 season against Arizona State and Arizona, but is starting to right the ship.
Oregon State (25-20, 3-5 Pac-10) was first to score on Thursday, going up 1-0 in the first inning as the Beavers’ speedy second baseman Cambria Miranda took advantage of a wild pitch and an error to make it around the bases.
But the Cardinal (37-7, 4-5 Pac-10) started five straight run-scoring innings in the bottom of the second. Sophomore catcher Rosey Neill launched her conference-leading 17th home run to lead off the second, and Stanford scored three more in the third thanks to savvy base-running by outfielders Anna Beardman and Alissa Haber.
Haber and Beardman scored on a passed ball and a throwing error before second baseman Tricia Aggabao came home on a single from freshman first baseman Melissa Koutz.
Stanford continued to pile on the runs as junior pitcher Missy Penna stayed sharp, and designated player Erin Howe ended the game an inning early with a three-run homer in the sixth.
Game two of the weekend, against Oregon, was much more dramatic. Stanford eked out the 1-0 win after going up early, thanks to a two-out RBI single from Koutz in the first inning.
It was the second time in three games (and in three career Pac-10 games for Koutz) that the freshman supplied the game-winning RBI for the Cardinal.
Oregon pitcher Brittany Rumfelt clamped down hard after that, limiting Stanford to just one more hit for the rest of the game and striking out three. Penna bore down on the Ducks just as strongly, though, never allowing an Oregon runner past second base on her way to a shutout win.
Neill played a huge role in the shutout from behind the plate, throwing out each of Oregon’s Kivett sisters on steal attempts to get crucial outs in the third and sixth innings. Cortney Kivett had only been caught twice in 32 steal attempts in the 2008 season.
It was the same story for the two teams again on Sunday. Penna continued in the circle for the Cardinal, but Oregon went with backup pitcher Alicia Cook. Stanford took advantage in the third inning after two-and-a-half scoreless frames.
Haber led off the bottom of the third by roping a double to left-center and then advancing to third on Aggabao’s bunt. Aggabao then took second, and both she and Haber scored on successive groundouts from shortstop Maddy Coon and Neill, giving Stanford a 2-0 lead.
Oregon came right back with a run in the bottom of the fourth, but that was all the Ducks could get in the game. Penna closed the fourth with two strikeouts and then retired nine of the next 10 Oregon batters to close out the game and the sweep for the Cardinal.
Stanford head coach John Rittman got his 500th victory in the Cardinal’s defeat of Oregon State on Thursday and now stands at 502-231-3 in 12 seasons, all with Stanford.
The Cardinal returns to the field in the middle of the week at home against Santa Clara on Tuesday before a three-game series with rival California. Stanford will host the Bears for the first two games on Friday and Saturday before playing the finale at Berkeley on Sunday.