(Photo Courtesy of Stanford Athletics)
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. – No. 13/11 Stanford took a one-run lead into the seventh inning but was unable to secure the victory Saturday, allowing three No. 23/23 LSU runs and falling to the Tigers, 5-3.
The Cardinal (13-2) held a 3-2 advantage to begin the final inning but three consecutive LSU (12-5) singles, two walks and a batter hit by a pitch gave the Tigers a 5-3 lead. Stanford was unable to generate runs in its final stanza and dropped its second consecutive game.
Madi Schreyer (10-1) recorded her first collegiate loss despite pitching a strong 7.0 innings. The freshman allowed four earned runs on 10 hits, walked three and struck out two.
Hanna Winter and Leah White led Stanford with two hits apiece, while Kayla Bonstrom, Bessie Noll and Jessica Plaza each recorded a hit.
LSU got on the board early when a batter reached and advanced to second on an error in the second inning. She was eventually brought home on a sacrifice fly to deep left field to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
The Cardinal responded in the bottom of the third when Plaza hit a booming home run over the left-field fence. Plaza leads the team with four home runs and a .786 slugging percentage.
After a scoreless fourth, Stanford struck for two runs in the fifth inning to take a 3-1 lead. Winter got the rally going with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. White followed with an RBI-double to put the Cardinal ahead. Bonstrom looped a single to shortstop that scored White from second and gave Stanford a two-run lead.
With two outs in the sixth inning, Allison Falcon homered for LSU to cut Stanford’s lead to one. Stanford was unable to generate any offense in the bottom half of the inning and took a one-run lead into the seventh.
LSU rallied for three runs in the top half of the seventh to earn the victory.
Stanford will conclude play at the Mary Nutter Classic on Sunday with games against Syracuse at 11:30 a.m. (PT) and No. 2/3 Tennessee at 2 p.m.
