FSU softball: Royalty shuts out No. 9 Stanford Cardinals at Clearwater Invitational

FSU softball (5-1) continues winning with a 4-0 shutout win over No. 9 Stanford in the first game of the Shriner's Clearwater Invitational. Allison Royalty continued to look impressive early this season, as she collected her third win. She shut out the Cardinals through five innings, allowing four hits, two walks, and three strikeouts. Royalty has shown much growth in the first few games, getting out of a bases-loaded no-out jam without allowing a run early in the game. She has added velocity, hitting 65 mph in the fifth inning, and cut down on her walks. She also got ahead of batters fairly consistently, which is a departure from last year. Freshman Ashtyn Danley pitched the final two frames and looks like she's building some confidence.

She still needs to improve on getting ahead in the count more consistently, but her change-up was devastating, and she threw it in different counts to keep batters off balance. She finished the game with three strikeouts, one walk, and allowed one hit. FSU had six hits and manufactured four runs in typical FSU fashion. It was a combination of putting pressure on Stanford on the base paths and Stanford's defense committing three errors. Jahni Kerr had two hits and the lone RBI on a sacrifice fly to give the Noles a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth. FSU went up against Stanford's best pitcher, NiJaree Canady, who's one of the best pitchers in the nation. Canady hit 74 mph consistently in the game, but FSU put together some solid at-bats as they saw more pitches. FSU freshmen Isa Torres and Jaysoni Beachum didn't look out of place against her, and that's a great sign for the Noles. Torres also made a run-saving leaping grab early in the game to save two runs. FSU softball will face No. 20 UCLA on Friday at 1 p.m. ET.