Sahil Patel | Student Life

In the final game on Sunday, the Bears broke No. 21 Anderson University’s 12-game winning streak en route to a 4-3 victory. Trailing 1-0, freshman Kenzie James recorded an RBI single to tie the game in the fourth inning. James was 3-for-4 in the game and raised her batting average to .407 this year. Then in the fifth inning, Wash. U. added three runs on two hits and an error to push the lead to 4-1. Anderson responded with a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning to pull within one run, but sophomore pitcher Annie Pitkin (11-9 record) held on for the complete-game victory, allowing nine hits and three runs (two earned) with seven strikeouts. Bears head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutte was impressed with the victory, but she emphasized that the other games this weekend mattered just as much.

“That particular game, in my opinion, weighed no more than the other games in Bloomington. They were all equally important, and it was nice to come out with a victory against a top opponent. I think it really showed our girls that they can compete against great teams,” Pineda-Boutte said.

In the second game of the day, the Bears came up victorious in their rematch against the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Senior Kelsey Neal (5-2 record) starred for Wash. U., earning the victory on the mound and also recording two hits and three RBIs. In the top of the seventh inning, Neal broke a 2-2 tie with a two-run double to score James and junior Alyssa Wilson. Pitkin picked up her third save of the season in the bottom of the inning to clinch the 4-2 victory.

To begin their weekend in Bloomington, Ill., the Bears were shut out 8-0 against UW-Eau Claire. UW-Eau Claire had more home runs (four) than the Bears had hits (three), and Pitkin took the loss after pitching four innings and allowing two runs.

Despite grabbing a 3-1 lead in the next game against No. 19 Illinois Wesleyan University, the Bears allowed seven unanswered runs to fall 8-3. The Titans scored three runs in the fifth and added four more in the sixth to run away with the 8-3 victory. Sophomore Brooke Hofer was the lone Bear with more than one hit on the day. Pineda-Boutte attributed the loss to the Bears’ sluggish offense, which ultimately put too much pressure on the team’s pitchers to deliver consistently.

“We only scored three runs offensively, and it’s tough to compete and it’s tough to have that much pressure on our pitchers to only give up less than three runs on the day,” the coach said. “Teams are going to score some runs, and we have to be able to keep up with that offensively.”

The Bears played two games at home on Friday against Westminster College (Mo.) and came away with two walk-off victories. In the first game, the Bears took a three-run lead, but Pitkin surrendered a three-run homer in the top of the fourth inning, leaving the Bears with a 3-2 deficit. Wash. U. scored one run in both the fourth and fifth innings to regain the lead, but Westminster knotted the game at 4-4 on an RBI single in the seventh inning. Pitkin pitched out of a jam to give the Bears the chance to win in the bottom half of the inning, and with the bases loaded and two outs, Wilson barely ran out an infield single to shortstop to drive in the winning run as the Bears won 5-4.

In the latter game of the doubleheader, the Bears jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but they could not maintain it as Westminster added three runs on four hits and an error in the fifth inning. The game eventually went into extra innings, where Westminster took a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning, but senior Maggie Ingell’s RBI single extended the game into the ninth inning. Junior Adrienne White, who had hit a home run in the second inning, delivered the game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth to give the Bears their second consecutive walk-off victory.

“Those were exciting games. It’s nice to win at home against an in-region opponent,” Pineda-Boutte said. “It’s just a nice feeling since it’s been a while since we’ve had that walk-off win.”

On Thursday, Wash. U. defeated Lindenwood-Belleville 6-4 on the road. James (3 for 3) stole two bases for the Bears and scored two runs in the game as the Red and Green maintained the lead throughout.

The Bears could not sustain the momentum, though, as a stagnant offense led to a 5-0 defeat in the second game of the doubleheader. Sophomore pitcher Amanda Kalupa recorded her first loss of the season, pitching four innings and allowing five earned runs. White had the only two hits for the Bears’ lethargic offense.

For the weekend, Pinedda-Boutte was particularly impressed that players “were called upon in playing different positions and we didn’t skip a beat, so that showed how deep we are as a team and how we fought through regardless of what the circumstances were.”

The Bears are now 21-12 on the season. Statistical highlights from the eight games came from Pitkin, who earned four wins and two losses with a 2.57 ERA, and James, who led the Bears with a .480 batting average and six stolen bases.