Oregon State Battles in a Nine-Inning Loss at Stanford

STANFORD, Calif. - The Oregon State softball team opened the weekend with a nine-inning game as Stanford took game one of the series, Friday night.
 
"It was a hard-fought game," said head coach Laura Berg. "Mariah [Mazon] threw well, we just didn't get the timely hit."
 
The Beavers were able to make connections to open the game but the Cardinal had the first hit in the first inning. 
 
Oregon State's junior Chance Burden and redshirt-freshman Bailey McLaughlin proved themselves in the bottom of the first. Burden made a long run to catch a fly ball in foul territory for the first out. McLaughlin followed by throwing out Teaghan Cowles, a Cardinal base-runner, for the first time on her (Cowles') 17th steal attempt. Cowles was previously 16-for-16 in steals.
 
Freshman Grace Messmer notched the first Beaver hit of the weekend to open the third after both teams had three straight outs in the second. Both sophomore Ashton Zeiher and freshman Xiao Gin made it to first on a fielder's choice as the Cardinal infield chose to go for the force out at second each time.
 
Junior pitcher Mariah Mazon contributed with two strikeouts in the bottom of the third.
 
In the fourth inning, sophomore Frankie Hammoude knocked a ball up the left side to get on base before freshman Charity Sevaaetasi followed with a double. The two hits were sandwiched by three fly balls to leave two on base to end the inning.
 
Once again, the Beavers left two on base in the fifth inning. Very similar to the fourth, Stanford grabbed two outs with the first two batters before OSU hit the ball. Gin and freshman Madison Simon were able to get on base with a single each but the Cardinal grabbed the third out to leave the first-years on base.
 
Oregon State was unable to get on base in the sixth before allowing one hit from Stanford in the bottom of the inning. The Beavers held the runner at second and closed the inning with just four batters.
 
For the third time in the game, OSU grabbed a hit after two outs with a single from Zeiher but she was stranded with the Cardinal collecting the final out.
 
The Beavers would not allow any of the Cardinal batters on base in the seventh to head to extra innings.
 
Both teams were unable to get a hit in the eighth. 
 
Hammoude opened the ninth with her second single of the day. The Beavers were unable to take advantage of having a base-runner and the Cardinal took the game, 1-0, in the bottom of the ninth.
 
Mazon pitched for five strikeouts allowing just one run and seven hits in 8.2 innings
 
The Beavers will continue this series with a doubleheader tomorrow, Saturday (May 1), with the first pitch at 1 p.m.
 
For more information on the Oregon State softball team, visit OSUBeavers.com or follow the team on Twitter and Instagram, @BeaverSoftball.
 
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