Softball Falls to Stanford on Friday Evening, 4-2

STANFORD, Calif.- Late inning heroics from the Utes fell just short as they dropped the opening game to Stanford on Friday evening, 4-2. A grand slam from the Cardinal in the second inning is all the offense they needed as the Utes were only able to score 2 runs, both courtesy of Ellessa Bonstrom who earned an RBI single in the third and hit a deep solo home run in the sixth.

Sophomore lefty, Mariah Lopez, was given the loss after going six innings, allowing four runs on five hits, walking four batters and striking three.

The Utes move to 1-3 in conference play and 17-15 overall on the season.

"These games with Stanford are going to be about the littler things. We need to more of the little things than they do if we want to win," head coach Amy Hogue said. "We hit the ball well and played clean defense, but we shot ourselves in the foot by giving up walks and not executing the little things offensively. If we want to win, we need to clean those things up tomorrow."

Final: Cardinal 4, Utes 2
After being retired in order in the opening frame of the game, Jordyn Gasper got things going in the second with a soft blooper over the Cardinal third basemen. Halle Morris followed being hit by a pitch to move Gasper in scoring position. However, the Utes were unable to convert with back to back strikeouts to end the inning.

Stanford loaded the bases in the bottom half of the second after Lopez walked two and gave up a single through the left side. A few pitches later, the following Cardinal batter got a hold of one and drove it over the center field wall for the grand slam and put them on top 4-0 with no outs.

Stanford continued with a single to left but Lopez was able to get out of the jam issuing a fly out, pop out and strikeout to end the frame.

The Utes got on the board in the third as Haley Denning slapped a shot into left and Sophie Jacquez advanced her over to second on a ground out. Bonstrom followed with a hard-hit single into right to cross Denning from second, tallying her team leading 31st RBI of the season to make the score 4-1 after three innings.

Lopez got back on track during the third and fourth inning, retiring six of seven batters and going three up, three down in the Cardinal half of the fourth.

It was Bonstrom again as she brought Utah within two in the sixth, hitting her eighth home run of the year and collecting her second RBI of the game.

Lopez stayed locked in during the bottom of the sixth, grounding out the first batter but gave up a double to right center. She quickly bounced back, popping up the next batter and fanning the following to end the inning and keep the game within striking distance for the Utes.

In their last at bats, Elicia Espinosa injected some energy into the dugout, roping a leadoff single to right. The ensuing batter, Belarde, found her first hit of the game to put two Utes on the base paths with no outs but Denning would follow with a strikeout. Jacquez stepped into the box and lined a hard bit ball that the short stop made a great play on in the gap and quickly threw to first to double up Belarde and end the game.  

Up Next
The Utes will be back on the field tomorrow at 3:00pm MT for the middle game of the series. The contest between the Utes and Cardinal can be seen live on Pac-12 Mountain with Live stats also being available for the game.

Fans can also keep up with live game action by following @Utah_Softball on Twitter.

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