STANFORD – Stanford Stadium has hosted 50 Big Games, the 1985 Super Bowl, FIFA Men’s and Women’s World Cups – and now the Stanford Softball Invitational.

Playing less than half a mile from the Stanford softball stadium, which is being renovated this year, the Cardinal opened its 2025 season with a 5-2 win over Seattle.

“When they told us we were going to play on a football field, I was like, ‘Oh no.’ But this is better than I ever imagined,” said senior pitcher Kylie Chung, who got the win. “I hope we get it packed for some of our big series.”

Chung is trading views of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Stanford Dish at the ballpark for views of bleachers this year, but she couldn’t be happier with the arrangement.

“In the fall when we go to football games, obviously the football games don’t go how we want, but we always have a lot of fun and a lot of good memories,” Chung said. “It’s a really good cap to my career.”

The field is on the south side of the stadium. The right field line is approximately the goal line in the south end zone, while the left field line goes along the Stanford football team’s sideline out to roughly midfield.

The Cardinal considered playing its home games at other softball venues like the one at Menlo College before ultimately settling on the unique environment. The football team no longer plays a traditional Spring Game in the stadium, so the venue is vacant all spring while the softball stadium expands its capacity from 829 to 1,347 and adds additional amenities.

The team has spent the past month practicing in Stanford Stadium, but this was the first experience in front of its fans.

“It’s just so cool we get to be here and play at home versus being on the road the entire year,” graduate student Caelan Koch said. “We appreciate having our fans here, and I think it’s just as good if not better than the fields we’re going to be playing on this year.”

One quirk of the new setup is that the right-field fence is 190 feet from the plate, the exact minimum allowed by the NCAA. That should be an advantage for Stanford’s line-up – the first five batters are all lefties.

“I’m not mad about it,” Stanford coach Jessica Allister joked.

The distance is 205 feet to left and 220 feet at the deepest point in center field.

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The Cardinal didn’t hit any homers Friday, though it did pound out 11 hits in six innings. Koch provided the go-ahead two-run single in the third inning for the 18th-ranked Cardinal, who have made back-to-back College World Series.

The change in venue isn’t the only major adjustment for Stanford, which is playing in the ACC for the first time and also needs to replace NiJaree Canady, who transferred to Texas Tech after leading the nation in ERA (0.73) and strikeouts (337) last year.

Chung gave up a two-out, two-run double in the first inning but only allowed two more baserunners before leaving with one out in the fifth. Sophomore Alyssa Houston then entered and allowed one runner in the final 2 2/3 innings, striking out five to ensure Stanford’s first softball game inside Stanford Stadium ended with a win.

“We’ve settled in, but every day I walk out here, I just think, ‘What a cool experience,’” Allison said. “This is going to be an experience that these student-athletes remember for the rest of their lives. At their 20-year reunion, (they’ll say) ‘Do you remember when we played in the football stadium?’ It’s unbelievable.”