Century Mark
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Stanford softball swept a doubleheader at Utah to give Jessica Allister her 100th win as the program's head coach, Saturday at Dumke Family Stadium.
The Cardinal (21-4, 2-0 Pac-12) outscored the Utes 17-2 on the day to clinch the series. It is only the second time Stanford has won its opening Pac-12 series since the conference expanded in 2012.
Only the first game of Saturday's doubleheader counted towards the Pac-12 standings.
Allister becomes only the second head coach in program history to win 100 games in their tenure. The former Cardinal all-American has a record of 100-59 in her three-plus seasons at the helm of her alma mater.
Stanford opened the day with a 9-2 victory over the Utes (11-12, 0-5 Pac-12). Alana Vawter struck out six in her eighth complete game of the season, as the sophomore held Utah to only two runs on six hits.
The Cardinal gained control of the game early thanks to a tone-setting, inside the park home run from Taylor Gindlesperger. The junior sent a shot into left field that went just past the diving glove of the Utah left fielder and rolled back towards the wall. From there, Gindlesperger used her speed to slide into home safely for her second inside the park home run of the season.
Emily Schultz extended the Stanford lead with a triple into left field to bat Eleni Spirakis across the plate, and Schultz was brought home on a RBI single from Sydney Steele.
Stanford hit for extra bases six times, including doubles from four different players, in the opening game of the doubleheader. Gindlesperger ended the day 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. Teaghan Cowles, Aly Kaneshiro, Steele and Kristina Inouye added doubles of their own.
Cowles extended her hitting and on-base streaks to 13 and 17 games, respectively.
In the second game, the Cardinal rode a strong outing from Regan Krause to an 8-0, run-rule victory for the program's ninth-straight win. Krause went the distance – the third-straight game Stanford has had a pitcher throw a complete game – striking out five to only four hits and zero walks.
Spirakis capitalized a four-run sixth inning with her first home run in a Cardinal jersey. The fifth-year senior sent a shot over the fence in center field to bat in three runs. Her home run gave Stanford the needed runs to end the game early, as the Utes stranded a runner on first in the bottom of the sixth.
The Cardinal will close out the five-game road swing through Utah tomorrow, at 11 a.m. PT. Stanford has not swept a three-game conference series since April 26-28, 2013, when it swept the Utes.