NCAA softball: Stanford, Cal win openers, Santa Clara facing elimination

The Cal Bears and Stanford Cardinal softball teams took different paths to first-round NCAA Tournament victories but both Bay Area teams moved closer to a College World Series berth on Friday Santa Clara s Hope Alley homered three batters into the Broncos first-ever NCAA tournament battle and the Broncos didn t fold after yielding a four-run second inning but couldn t complete the comeback against th-ranked Arizona and are one loss from elimination in the -team tournament No ranked Stanford rolled past Binghamton of New York - in Eugene Oregon scoring in each of the first four innings of the rout In Norman Oklahoma Annabel Teperson allowed two hits in Cal s - win over Omaha and in Tucson Arizona SCU fought back to cut a five-run deficit to one in the fourth inning but was doomed by two more big innings in a - five-inning loss to the th-ranked Wildcats Stanford - entered the tournament with the second-highest gang batting average in the nation and averaged runs during the regular season and came out swinging against the Bearcats - hurriedly building a seven-run lead Caelen Koch had four of the Cardinal s ten hits and drove in two runs Emily Jones also drove in two runs and eight different Stanford players scored at least once against the Bearcats who are in the tournament for the second time in school history The Cardinal which is looking to reach the CWS for the third straight year faces No Oregon or Weber State on Saturday at p m Related Articles Pac- collapse Tax filings show revenue drop huge relocation costs Bay Area Sports HoF Montgomery reflects on success calls on Stanford Cal to figure out what it takes in NIL Mailbag SEC leads Big Ten Big in post-spring conference hierarchy Santa Clara set to make NCAA softball tournament debut joins postseason regulars Stanford Cal NFL schedule process offers a model for college football in transfer portal era Cal - broke a scoreless tie against the Mavericks - in the bottom of the fourth when Elon Butler led off with a double and then scored from second on Tianna Bell s two-out single Cal had just two hits but produced its fourth shutout in the past six games Omaha had runners on second and third in the second and then again in the fifth after two Cal fielding errors but Teperson worked out of the jams with a strikeout and a groundout respectively The senior retired seven of the final eight batters she faced to record her third complete-game shutout The Bears who are also making their third-straight tournament appearance but haven t reached the CWS since face four-time defending national champion and No tournament seed Oklahoma at a m on Saturday The Broncos - play the loser of Friday s late Mississippi Grand Canyon match at p m Saturday With a win they d play another probable elimination competition at p m Alley who transferred from Cal as a grad scholar hit her fifth homer of the season with two out in the bottom of the first The former Foothill High Pleasanton star has reached base in straight games Arizona - tied the outcome in the bottom of the first erupted for four runs in the second and made it - after three innings SCU got back into the event with a four-run rally of its own in the fourth with Robynn Balmediano and Lauren Bryson producing consecutive back-to-back two-run hits But Arizona which had hits and benefitted from seven walks and two SCU fielding errors pulled away for good with a three-run fourth and a four-run fifth