The first was filled with action as both teams put runs on the board. In the top of the inning, Stanford’s sophomore shortstop River Mahler hit a deep pop fly to freshman left fielder Kayden Henry, who dropped the pop-up, bringing in sophomore infielder Taryn Kern to put Stanford on the board first. In the next at-bat, Mahler found herself in a pickle between third base and home, and she managed to duck the tag from sophomore starting pitcher Citlaly Gutierrez, stealing the second run of the game for Stanford. Without picking up a hit, the Cardinals found themselves up 2-0 early, and Texas fell behind early for the first time this season.
However, it didn’t take long for the Longhorns to answer. Senior outfielder Bella Dayton walked on five pitches, and junior third basemen Mia Scott walked on 10, putting them on second and first base with senior DP Joley Mitchell up to the plate. Mitchell hammered a strike to short, but when the throw came into first, freshman first baseman Ava Gall dropped the ball, allowing for Dayton to round the bases and beat the throw to home. By the end of the inning, Texas trailed Stanford 2-1 without a recorded hit for either side.
Stanford got its bats going in the third inning thanks to a double by senior outfielder Caelan Koch, her first of the season, the first hit of the game for either team. Koch picked up an RBI in the process as Kern, who walked earlier in the inning, ran home safely to bring Stanfords lead to 3-1.
But Texas showed its resilience in the bottom half of the inning. The Longhorns opened up their offense with a Dayton single, beating out a grounder to short on a blooper. A couple batters later, sophomore catcher Reese Atwood hit a no-doubt home run to deep center left field, tying the ballgame up at three a piece. The home run was Atwood’s ninth of the season, and sophomore pitcher NiJaree Canady’s second home run allowed in 43.1 total innings pitched.
In the top of the fifth, senior pitcher Estelle Czech entered the game to relieve Gutierrez. In the fifth, Stanford’s Mahler hit a grounder to first, but freshman first baseman Katie Stewart was unable to handle it and threw the ball away trying to beat Mahler to the bag, causing the second error of the night for the Longhorns. Despite the error, Czech got out of the inning and left Mahler stranded, holding the score at 3-3.
The Longhorns got close to jumping ahead for the first time in the bottom of the fifth inning. Scott singled, and Stewart hit a blooper to shallow right, advancing Scott to third and putting runners on the corner. But with two outs, Atwood popped out to straightaway center, and Stanford was able to escape the inning, keeping the game tied.
Texas stranded a couple more batters in the bottom of the sixth. Canady hit sophomore infielder Viviana Martinez in the inside shoulder, and freshman infielder Vic Hunter singled on a liner to right field. But junior outfielder Katie Cimusz, pinch hitting for redshirt sophomore and outfielder Ashton Maloney, struck out, retiring the side.
Czech stayed in the game for the top of the seventh, and escaped cleanly only giving up one runner on base in the process. Canady handled her business in the bottom of the inning, forcing extra innings, and the Longhorns went to the eighth inning for the first time this season.
In the top of the eighth inning, Hayes hit a sacrifice fly to deep left field, driving in a runner and granting Stanford a 4-3 lead, in front of Texas for the third time of the night. The Longhorns were unable to answer this time, however, as Canady struck out two batters and forced a pop-up from Martinez to retire the side. Stanford got its revenge after falling to Texas 9-2 earlier in the year, largely thanks to Canady, who struck out 11 batters and pitched all eight innings for 125 total pitches.
Texas will play for the fifth time in three days on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 12:30 p.m. C.T against the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. They recently met on the 23, where Texas won 5-0.
