Stanford Softball's Weekend vs. Georgia Tech

This weekend will be a historic one for Stanford softball. For the first time ever, the Cardinal will begin ACC play as a member of the conference, hitting the road to take on Georgia Tech in a three-game weekend series in Atlanta. Currently sitting at 12-2 to start the new season, Stanford is currently ranked No. 17 in the nation.

The Yellow Jackets, who are 11-7, have gotten back into the win column after a losing streak, having beaten Dayton and Kennesaw State the last three games that they have played. However before that, they had lost four straight, falling to Kentucky and Coastal Carolina during that span.

Stanford and Georgia Tech will begin their series on Friday, with the first game slated to begin at 2 p.m. (PT). Following that game, the Cardinal will face a quick turnaround for Saturday's game, with first pitch slated for noon. The finale of the series, which will take place on Sunday, is expected to have a first pitch of 10 a.m. (PT).

It is still unknown who will get the ball for the Cardinal during the series and pitch, but it could be expected that pitchers such as Kylie Chung and Zoe Prystajko will be in line to throw. Alyssa Houston, who has proven to a strong option late in games, could also expect to see a fair amount of mound action this weekend.

Through the team's 14 games, only Chung, Houston and Prystajko have gotten the opportunity to pitch, with Houston leading the way with a 2.24 ERA. Last weekend Prystajko fired a no-hitter.

At the plate, the Cardinal have been dominant all around, but have gotten a very big boost from OF/INF Emily Jones, who is currently leading the team in hitting with a .522 average in 46 at-bats. Her ability to make contact and get on base has been evident all throughout the early portion of the season, with her 24 hits leading the team by four.

Junior Taryn Kern leads the team with six home runs on the season, already just one shy of her seven from all of 2024. As a team, Stanford has hit 30 home runs in 14 games, which is already approaching their total of 56 homers as a team from last season.

Since Jessica Allister took over the program ahead of the 2018 season, the Cardinal has scored more runs than the previous season every year – with the exception of the COVID-condensed 2020 season. Last year they improved by 37 runs scored, finishing with 309. Through 14 games, Stanford has scored 124 runs, ranking No. 14 in the country.

At this pace (8.85 runs per game) they would have scored 505 runs last year in 57 games, which is nearly 200 runs more than they put up. This team can hit.

There is no denying that this will be a big weekend in terms of setting the tone for the rest of the season, but as is the case with any sport, especially softball, the most important thing will be for the Cardinal to take it one game at a time.