Alyssa Denham’s no-hitter, Malia Martinez’s seven RBI carry Arizona to win at Stanford

Alyssa Denham threw a no-hitter and Malia Martinez drove in seven runs on two homers as Arizona softball opened its road series at Stanford with a dominant 9-0 victory Thursday.

Denham allowed two baserunners, both via error, in an otherwise flawless five frames to give Arizona (19-5) a run-rule victory. It’s the third no-hitter of Denham’s career and the 95^th in program history.

Denham was gifted a big lead before she ever took the mound, courtesy of a first inning grand slam by Martinez. The senior third baseman crushed a two-strike, two-out fastball above the left field bleachers.

The grand slam jolted Stanford (23-5) starter Regan Krause, who entered the day with a 1.32 ERA over 69 innings pitched.

In the third inning, Arizona scored two more runs off of Krause. The fifth run of the day came on a bases loaded walk to Allie Skaggs. Bella Dayton hit a sac fly later in the inning to make it 6-0.

Krause left the game having recorded six outs and allowing six earned runs. Stanford turned to Maddy Dwyer in relief. The senior was mostly effective until she allowed a fourth inning three-run homer to Martinez, who hit the ball nearly the same spot as the grand slam.

Martinez’s seven RBIs are a new career high, topping the six RBIs she drove in against the same Cardinal opponent on April 20, 2019.

Arizona’s nine runs were the second most Stanford has allowed all season. The Wildcats snapped a 10-game Cardinal winning streak and put a serious dent into Stanford’s team ERA, which was fourth-best in the nation entering Thursday.

The two teams square up for a Friday double. First pitch of game one is at 3:30 p.m. MST. Both games will air for free on Stanford Live Stream-2.