{"id":266289,"date":"2026-04-13T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266289\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:53:08","slug":"fresno-state-nc-state-on-deck-stanford-cardinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266289\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno State, NC State on Deck &#8211; Stanford Cardinal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh off a three-game sweep of No. 5 Florida State, Stanford (26-12, 12-6) is back in action with a four-game week. The Cardinal heads to the Central Valley on Wednesday for a 3:00 p.m. PT game againt Fresno State, before returning home for a three-game series with with NC State.<\/p>\n<p>The Card enters on a four-game winning streak, with just six more ACC games left in the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>Taryn Torching \/\/ <a href=\"https:\/\/gostanford.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/player\/taryn-kern\" title=\"Taryn Kern\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Taryn Kern<\/a> has been on a tear to start the season, doing it all for the Card in the leadoff spot.<\/p>\n<p>Kern has posted a .412\/.552\/.965 slash line through 38 games, good for a staggering 1.517 OPS, all of which leads the Cardinal.<br \/>\nThe leadoff hitter leads the team in runs scored with 53, as well as RBI with 38 and is tied for the lead in doubles with 12.<br \/>\nThe senior earned the first ACC Player of the Week award of the season for her efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Record-Breaking Senior \/\/ Kern is on pace to re-write a number of Stanford softball record books in her senior season.<\/p>\n<p>Kern&#8217;s team-leading 15 home runs this season are tied for the fourth-most in a season in program history, and her 41 career home runs are third-best.<br \/>\nKern sits just 11 walks away from the program&#8217;s career record, set by <a href=\"https:\/\/gostanford.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/player\/maddy-coon\" title=\"Maddy Coon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maddy Coon<\/a> in 2009.<br \/>\nHer .965 slugging percentage this season would be a single-season program record.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping up With Kyra \/\/ Chan has been one of the Cardinal&#8217;s most consistent hitters, doing a bit of everything for Stanford.<\/p>\n<p>Chan is slashing .400\/.479\/.658 for a 1.137 OPS. All four marks are second-most on the team.<br \/>\nThe senior has picked up a hit in 32 of the Card&#8217;s 38 games, including 14 multi-hit games, leading the team in total hits with 48.<br \/>\nChan also sits second on the team in runs scored (35).<\/p>\n<p>Dominant Top of the Lineup Card \/\/ Kern, <a href=\"https:\/\/gostanford.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/player\/emily-jones\" title=\"Emily Jones\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emily Jones<\/a> and Chan have been a mainstay at the top of the Cardinal lineup, and have been massive contributors to the team&#8217;s run production.<\/p>\n<p>The trio is hitting a combined 138-for-343 for a .402 clip, scoring 124 of the team&#8217;s 262 runs on the season.<br \/>\nDespite being atop the order, the trio has still driven in 100 runs on the year.<br \/>\nThe three seniors are the top three on the team in batting average and runs scored.<br \/>\nThe top of the lineup has set the middle of the order up for success behind them, drawing 58 walks to 36 strikeouts.<br \/>\nOnce on the bases, the three players are a perfect 16-16 in steal attempts.<\/p>\n<p>No Sophomore Slump \/\/ Prystajko has made a significant jump in her second season on The Farm, seeing marked improvement across nearly every stat. Entering the week, she&#8217;s already pitched more innings innings in 2026 (110.2) than in 2025 \u2013 96.2 IP.<\/p>\n<p>After entering 2026 with a single-game best of eight strikeouts, the sophomore has reached that mark seven times in 2026.<br \/>\nPrystajko has more than doubled her strikeout total from last season, striking out 159 in 2026, up from last season&#8217;s 74.<br \/>\nLast season, Prystajko posted a 5.00 ERA in 96.2 IP. The left-handed hurler currently owns a 2.91 ERA in 2026.<br \/>\n2025 batters hit .249 off In 2026, opposing hitters are having siginifcantly less success at .190.<br \/>\nPrystajko has cut down her number of free passes, only issuing 43 walks and hitting 20 batters. Last season, in fewer innings pitched, those numbers were 47 and 30, respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh off a three-game sweep of No. 5 Florida State, Stanford (26-12, 12-6) is back in action with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-266289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}