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Stanford head coach John Rittman captured his 700th career win as the No. 18 Stanford softball team topped Minnesota, 2-1, in eight innings and Florida Gulf Coast, 2-1, on the first day of the Stanford Louisville Slugger Classic on Friday.

The Cardinal improved to 19-5 overall, while the Golden Gophers fell to 11-8 and the Eagles dropped to 14-7.

Rittman is now 700-318-3 (.687) in his career, earning all 700 victories with the Cardinal. His winning percentage ranks in the top 20 in the nation among active coaches.

Senior pitcher Teagan Gerhart got a win and a save for the Cardinal in the circle. She went the distance against Minnesota, racking up a season-high 12 strikeouts while allowing just one unearned run on four hits with no walks. She entered the second game in the top of the seventh with two outs and got the strikeout to notch the save against the Eagles.

Freshman pitcher Kelsey Stevens earned the start against FGC, fanning five batters and giving up one run on three hits in 2 1/3 innings of work. Sophomore Nyree White tallied her first win of the season, throwing 4 1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts.

Against Minnesota, which is coached by former Cardinal All-American Jessica Allister, neither team was able score any runs during the first seven innings of action, forcing an eighth. With the international tiebreaker rule in effect (placing a runner at second base to start the inning), the Golden Gophers scored one run on a triple by second baseman Erika Smyth.

The Cardinal responded in the bottom of the eighth, with sophomore Hanna Winter out to run at second base. Sophomore Leah White led off with a single to left field. Senior Jenna Rich then reached on an error by Minnesota third baseman Kaitlyn Richardson. Winter then scored as sophomore Cassandra Roulund reached on an error by Smyth. Leah White scored the winning run as first baseman Erin Ashby reached on a walk-off fielder's choice.

Against Florida Gulf Coast, the Cardinal took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs, White singled to right field to start a rally. Rich then singled up the middle and freshman designated player Kayla Bonstrom drew a walk to load the bases. Ashby was hit by a pitch to score White, while freshman catcher Jessica Plaza tallied an RBI walk to score Rich.

The Eagles cut the lead to 2-1 in the top of the third inning, but was unable to generate any more runs.

The Cardinal will face Minnesota and Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday at Smith Family Stadium. The Cardinal will take on the Golden Gophers at 2:30 p.m. and the Eagles at 4:45 p.m. Stanford also will host Pacific on Sunday at 12:15 p.m.

Baseball
Mark Appel struck out a career high 15 strikeouts but two unearned runs gave visiting UNLV a 3-2 victory over Stanford on Friday night, ending the Cardinal nine-game winning streak.

Appel(2-2) lasted seven innings, giving up all three runs on four hits. He walked one.

Palo Alto resident Alex Blandino hit a home run among his three hits as Stanford (10-3) looks to even the series on Saturday, with game time set for 1 p.m.

Men's golf
Stanford is in second place at two-under-par 286, just one stroke behind California, on Friday in the first round of the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters.

Sophomore Patrick Rodgers led the tournament with a six-under-par 66 after opening with two consecutive birdies and firing three more to end the front nine at five under. Two more birdies and a bogey on the back nine left Rodgers with a two-stroke lead.

"On the front nine I just tried to take what the golf course gave me," said Rodgers who hit 12 fairways and had 26 putts. "The wind laid down a bit and the greens were receptive so the course offered a few early birdies. I hit a lot of quality shots, controlled the ball well and converted the putts to get it going early."

Under cold, windy, rainy conditions, where some sleet covered the ground and the tournament had to call a rain delay, only Stanford and California shot under par.

"We had a great team contribution all the way around and I'm confident Steve Kearney will be in there for us in the next few days," said The Knowles Family Director of Golf Conrad Ray. "We know there's a lot of golf left and we're going to continue to control the things we can control, picking good clubs and having good strategy on the course."

Another Cardinal front-runner was Cameron Wilson who shot a 71 to tie for seventh. The junior birdied the second, seventh, 10th and 16th holes for a solid performance.

Senior Andrew Yun tied for 19th at 73 after two early bogeys and a birdie over the front nine. Then he overcame a late bogey by making a birdie on his last hole for one over.

Track and field
Stanford's Tyler Stutzman and Michael Atchoo advanced to the mile final to complete a busy day for the Cardinal duo at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday in Arkansas.

The two also teamed on Stanford's distance medley relay team that placed eighth on the first of two days of competition on the 200-meter banked Mondo track at the Randal Tyson Center.

Nine Stanford athletes competed Friday and four will do so Saturday: Jules Sharpe in the men's high jump final, Alyssa Wisdom in the women's shot put trials and final, and Atchoo and Stutzman in the mile.

Stutzman and Atchoo each were fourth in their semifinal heats and qualified in the seventh and eighth spots in the 10-runner mile field. Stutzman ran his second sub-four-minute mile of the season, going 3:59.93, and Atchoo ran 4:02.13.

A little more than three hours later, both returned to the track for the DMR, with Stutzman leading off on the 1,200-meter leg and Atchoo anchoring over 1,600.

Spencer Chase ran the 400 leg and Luke Lefebure, the Elite 89 Award winner for having the highest cumulative grade-point average (3.85) among all the meet's athletes, ran the 800.

The men's DMR earned the only point for Stanford's men or women on Friday, while Cardinal athletes competed in six events altogether.

Amy Weissenbach missed qualifying for the final in the women's 800 by one spot. The freshman ran 2:06.66 to finish fourth in her semifinal and ninth overall. However, she did earn her first All-America honor by earning a top-16 national finish.

She earned her second – both second-team selections – when she led off the Cardinal women's DMR to 11th place.

The team of Weissenbach, Kori Carter (400), Claudia Saunders (800), and Kathy Kroeger (1,600) was timed in 11:14.77. Kroeger earned her ninth All-America honor (including indoors, outdoors, and cross country), and the freshman Saunders her first.

Carter earned her sixth and seventh second-team All-America honors. The Stanford record-holder in the 60 hurdles, Carter was eighth in her semifinal heat in 8.29 and did not advance to the final, finishing 15th overall.

Women's lacrosse
It was not always pretty, but the 18th-ranked Stanford lacrosse team got the result it was looking for with a 17-12 victory over the University of Southern California, Friday at Laird Q. Cagan Stadium.

The Cardinal (3-2, 1-0 MPSF) fought off a second half USC (4-4, 2-1 MPSF) rally to open its Mountain Pacific Sports Federation slate with a win.

After Stanford opened the second half on a 3-1 scoring run to earn its largest lead of the match, 14-5, USC responded with four consecutive goals. The Trojans would eventually pull within four scores of the Cardinal after Caroline Cordrey scored her team-high fourth goal of the day for the Trojans with 2:08 to play.

However, Stanford got a goal from Rachel Ozer less than 30 seconds later to put the Cardinal ahead comfortably, 17-12. Stanford claimed the ensuing draw control and maintained possession until the end of regulation.

Stanford junior Anna Kim had a terrific game, leading Stanford with five points on four goals and an assist. Kim also led the Cardinal with five draw controls. She ranks second on Stanford in points (13), goals (9), assists (4) and draw controls (13) on the season.

"She played awesome in the midfield and was a real spark of energy," head coach Amy Bokker said.

The Cardinal also saw a breakout offensive performance from freshman Julia Burns who recorded her first multi-goal game of her career, finding the net four times - each in the first half. Burns scored the first goal of the game less than a minute in and netted the final goal of the first half with 12 seconds to play.

Women's tennis
No. 20 Stanford breezed past No. 31 Washington 7-0 on Friday afternoon at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium in the Pac-12 opener for both teams.

Stanford (6-2, 1-0 Pac-12), slated to play consecutive matches over three days, notched its first shutout of the year.

Washington (8-4, 0-0 Pac-12) lost for the first time in almost three weeks.

The Cardinal swept all three matches to claim the doubles point and grab a 1-0 lead.

Krista Hardebeck extended Stanford's lead to 2-0, making quick work of Elianne Douglas-Miron in a 6-0, 6-2 victory on court three.

Kristie Ahn followed with a 6-0, 6-4 triumph over Grace Ysidora at the No. 2 spot, putting the Cardinal in front 3-0.

Stacey Tan provided the clincher, taking down Julija Lukac 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 4 position.

Stanford then received straight-set victories from Nicole Gibbs (6-4, 6-0 at No. 1) and Ellen Tsay (6-2, 6-2 at No. 5).

The match concluded 45 minutes later when Lindsey Kostas outlasted Riko Shimizu 7-5, 7-5 on court six.

Stanford is back in action on Saturday, hosting No. 73 Washington State at noon.

Men's volleyball
Brian Cook had 15 kills and Steven Irvin added 11 but No. 4 Stanford dropped a 25-18, 25-19, 25-19 decision to host UC Santa Barbara in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest Friday night.

The Cardinal (9-7, 12-7) travels to UCLA for another MPSF match Saturday.

— Stanford Athletics

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