After a strong start to the Pac-10 season, the Stanford softball team will go on the road again this weekend for its third conference series of the year. The No. 8 Cardinal (30-6, 4-2 Pac-10) is coming off a road series against Oregon State. Stanford won the first two games of the series, but the Beavers battled back to avoid the sweep.
The Cardinal also had similar results in its first conference series, at home against Cal two weeks ago. Like the series against Oregon State, Stanford edged the Golden Bears in the series’ first two contests before falling in the final game.
Stanford will now travel to Tucson, Ariz. to take on No. 4 Arizona. While the Wildcats (32-7, 2-4) boast an impressive record, they have not fared very well against highly-ranked competition. They split a two-game series with No. 11 Missouri and lost a close game to No. 2 Michigan.
Like Stanford, Arizona has played two conference series, both on the road. It won its first series, 2-1 against No. 6 Arizona State, before being swept in Seattle by No. 1 Washington last weekend. It also won a doubleheader on Wednesday against UTEP.
The last meeting between the two teams was in last year’s NCAA Tournament, where the Wildcats took two out of three from the Cardinal at the Super Regional to move on to the Women’s College World Series.
In this weekend’s series, both teams will look to their top pitchers to lead them to victory.
For Stanford, freshman Teagan Gerhart has pitched extremely well this season, leading the Cardinal to its current record. Gerhart has a 22-5 record on the season, with a 1.58 ERA in 185.2 innings pitched.
Though Gerhart has been able to contain opposing offenses for most of the season, her performance in the final games of the last two conference series has not been as strong. After shutting down both Cal and Oregon State in the first two games of the respective series, Gerhart has proved unable to carry the momentum into a third consecutive start. Though starting three games consecutively is not unusual for a softball pitcher, it remains to be seen whether or not Gerhart will be able to sustain her pitching throughout the weekend.
Arizona will counter Gerhart with its own freshman, Kenzie Fowler. Though she has not been as dominant as Gerhart, Fowler will enter the weekend with a 21-5 record. She also threw a no-hitter in the first game against UTEP on Wednesday.
Offensively, Stanford has been led all season by senior left fielder Alissa Haber. She currently holds a .469 average and has 53 hits and 25 RBIs for the season. With five home runs, Haber is also one of the main sources of power in the Cardinal lineup.
However, she was not as strong as these numbers would suggest in the Cardinal’s last conference series—she went 3-9 against Oregon State with no RBIs or runs scored.
Stanford’s second offensive star has been sophomore second baseman Ashley Hansen. She is hitting .378 on the season. Like Haber, she was somewhat quieter during the Oregon State series, going 2-8 with one RBI.
Stanford will play three games this weekend against Arizona, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The first two games will begin at 7 p.m., while the final one will start at 12 p.m.