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Brianna Gourdin struck out five in Utah's loss on Thursday.
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May 20, 2004
PALO ALTO, Calif.--The Utah softball team fell 1-0 to No. 7 Stanford in the first round of the NCAA Regional on Thursday night. The loss means Utah will face Southern Mississippi on Friday at 10:00 a.m., with the winner surviving and the loser going home.
Stanford's Dana Sorenson struck out 14 Utes, including eight in a row at one point in the game to earn the shutout victory. "Dana threw one heck of a game tonight," said Head Coach Mona Stevens. "Our team hasn't seen that type of speed in at least a month, and it took us a few innings to adjust."
The Utes did make the adjustment in the top of the seventh, but fell just short on two occasions. After Devina Quintero knocked a ball to the warning track in center for the second out of the inning, Ivette Hernandez laced a double to the gap in right center. With pinch runner Texie Criddle in place of Hernandez, Lynsey Wall smashed a grounder to third that was fielded perfectly by the Cardinal third baseman and tossed to first for the third out of the inning.
Utah's Brianna Gourdin was equally impressive in the circle. The sophomore held the Cardinal to five hits, but two of them came in the fourth for a score. In the inning, the Cardinal would knock a single and move the runner to second after a wildpitch. Gourdin would then give up a walk and get a flyout to put runners at first and second with one out. The hurler's next opponent would then punch a bloop single to right to score the runner from second and put Stanford up 1-0. Utah would get out of the inning after a diving grab by second baseman Jackie Wong and a flyout to center. The lone run would prove to be the difference in the ballgame.
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"It's really frustrating to lose a game on a bloop single, but I'm really happy with our performance tonight," said Gourdin.
