49.6 F
Davis

Davis, California

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Softball Preview

Teams: UC Davis at No. 9 Stanford

Records: Aggies, 13-21 (2-1); Cardinal, 27-5 (2-1)

Where: Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium – Stanford, Calif.

When: Today at 6 p.m.

Who to watch: As a freshman, Michelle Espiritu started in 34 of the 45 games in which she played.

The senior out of Mission Viejo, Calif. had a combined 24 stolen bases out of 28 attempts during her sophomore and junior campaigns, with a perfect 7-for-7 mark last year.

Espiritu now sits at eighth in the Big West Conference with five stolen bases.

Did you know? Before the three-game series against Cal State Northridge last weekend, UC Davis had never won a conference-opening series as a member of the Big West.

The Aggies split a doubleheader with the Matadors on Friday and had an eighth-inning breakthrough in game three on Saturday for the series victory.

Preview: UC Davis will continue its challenging schedule as it faces the ninth-ranked Stanford on Tuesday.

Last year when the Aggies faced the Cardinal, Stanford’s Shannon Koplitz had an RBI-single in the fifth inning to account for the game’s only run.

UC Davis threatened in the seventh when Rachel Miller doubled to put runners on second and third, but Stanford pitcher Missy Penna [cq] forced a groundout to end the game.

The victory helped the Cardinal to its 23rd straight win.

Graduated hurler Jessica Hancock and this year’s staff ace Alex Holmes [cq] gave up only a combined five hits in the game.

Hancock threw the first three innings before Holmes took over in the fourth. Holmes suffered the loss as she gave up the one run on three hits, while striking out three batters.

Stanford will be coming off a 6-0 loss to California in the last matchup of a Pac-10 Conference series.

The first game of the series went scoreless into the 12th when the Cardinal struck with the game-winning run.

Stanford’s pitcher Teagan Gerhart threw the complete-game victory as she allowed three hits and struck out ten batters.

– Grace Sprague

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