STANFORD, Calif. — Staying in the Bay Area and continuing in Pac-12 action, Saint Mary's Softball went back to the site of last year's thrilling comeback win against the Stanford Cardinal. Their luck was not quite the same on Thursday night in the Peninsula, as they let a big inning from Stanford dictate the final, dropping the game 14-1. With the loss, Saint Mary's falls to 4-8 early on in the season with three games left on the week.
 
SECOND STRIKES AGAIN
Saint Mary's labored through another second inning against a Pac-12 school, allowing 10 runs in the second inning for the second-consecutive day. The inning began with the first six runners reaching base against Gaels pitching, starting with Sofia Earle and then continuing onto Avrey Wolverton. A pitching change to Kayla Scott yielded the first out of the inning, but three more hits and an SMC error brought across the remaining runs of the inning. Saint Mary's entered the inning even with the Cardinal 1-1, but a few fluky plays thrown in the middle of an early inning turned out to be their undoing.
 
HOW THEY SCORED
Saint Mary's got on the board in the second inning after Stanford struck first, and again it was Indya Smith getting it started with a single through the left side. She moved up to second base on a ground out, and then came around to score thanks to a Holly Lusk single to right-center, tying the game at 1-1. It marked the second run batted in this season for Lusk, and the second-consecutive game that Smith has scored the first run for SMC.
 
UP NEXT
Saint Mary's will take Friday off before taking part in the Silicon Valley Classic, hosted by Santa Clara and San Jose State. The Gaels play two against Utah State on Saturday afternoon at Sant Clara, beginning at 12:30 pm before heading down to San Jose for Sunday's match against San Jose State. SMC will begin March in Colorado as they head to Colorado State for more tournament play.