Senior Janet Taylor slides into home base before the opponent player catches the ball. The softball team split a four game-series against Case Western Reserve University this weekend.[/caption]The Washington University baseball and softball teams must have been given the same script this weekend, because each went win-loss-win-loss against Case Western Reserve University Friday and Saturday, with each respective pair of wins and losses following a similar pattern.

Geordan Neinstein | Student Life

Baseball

The No. 16 Bears entered the weekend on a roll, having won nine of 10, with the only loss coming to Webster after a 10-day layoff. In the first game at Nobby’s Ballpark in Cleveland, Ohio, senior starting pitcher Brad Margolin kept the winning ways going, delivering his second consecutive shutout in a brutally efficient 97-pitch complete game. He allowed only three baserunners and faced just two hitters over the minimum possible.

Margolin has been fantastic over the last month, lowering his earned run average from 4.91 to 2.28 over his last four outings. He’s striking out 7.71 batters per nine innings and is sporting the best walks plus hits per innings pitched mark of his career at a minuscule 0.80.

Friday also represented two major milestones for Margolin, who passed 200 innings pitched for his career and moved to 6-0 with his 20th career win, just the 10th Bear to reach the double decade. With at least three more starts remaining, Margolin can finish with the best single season record in Bears history if he gets to 9-0.

The Red and Green offense stalled for most of the day, but took advantage of Spartan miscues in the seventh inning to provide the only run Margolin would need. After senior shortstop Austin Darmawan reached on an error to lead off the frame, he moved to third on a sacrifice and a wild pitch before senior left fielder Christian Santos singled him in to capitalize.

Despite the victory, one good thing came to an end Friday for the Bears: Senior second baseman Ben Browdy’s Wash. U.-record 38-game hitting streak finally snapped, as he went 0-for-3 on the afternoon. Browdy was still productive however, drawing two walks.

Wash. U.’s victory Saturday was built on much of the same—dominant pitching. Sophomore starter Zack Kotin and senior reliever Jake Mintz combined to shut out the Spartans, totaling eight strikeouts and allowing just five baserunners. Meanwhile, Darmawan, Browdy and Santos led the charge on offense for a 5-0 final.

Mintz, like Margolin, is having a senior season to remember. Out of the bullpen, Mintz has allowed just nine hits in 25 innings for a team-leading 0.72 ERA, only 0.03 off the best single-season ERA in school history. He’s cut down on his walks recently, too, offering just three free passes over his past 14.1 innings.

While pitching propelled the Bears in the pair of wins, it was their downfall in the corresponding losses. In Friday’s nightcap, sophomore starting pitcher John Howard allowed five runs in a 5-1 loss; Saturday’s starter, senior Scott Nelson, allowed four of his own, while the bullpen followed him up by allowing six runs in four innings. The Red and Green lineup, averaging over six runs per game this season, was again stifled, held to just one run.

Wash. U. wraps up its road trip with another four-game set at Brandeis University next weekend.

Softball

Like the baseball Bears, the softball Bears started their weekend with a Friday matinee shutout, though they hosted the Spartans. Junior starting pitcher Anna McKee was brilliant, moving to 9-3 with a three-hit complete game. She did not allow an extra-base hit and struck out three while walking none.

Freshman Amy Walsh returned to the two-spot in the lineup after a 12-game absence, singling in her first at-bat and scoring on a double by senior left fielder Hannah Mehrle.

The Red and Green added some insurance in the bottom of the sixth inning, taking advantage of a Case Western error with a second run-scoring double, this time off the bat of junior third baseman Hera Tang.

McKee was again the hero in Saturday’s first game, albeit in the batter’s box this time. McKee was cruising through six innings on the mound, holding a 3-1 Bears lead—until the top of the seventh. Trying to hold the two-run lead, McKee allowed a double and single to begin the inning. She was able to escape the jam, but not before two sacrifice flies by the Spartans evened the score.

Still, McKee was able to help herself in the bottom of the frame, after Walsh and Tang singled to set up runners on the corners with nobody out. McKee delivered the walk-off single to right field to give the Bears their second win and move her own record to 10-3. Like Margolin, McKee is enjoying a career year, her ERA now down to 1.79 through 94 innings.

The losses that followed each victory were heartbreakers for the Red and Green, each coming in 10 innings. On Friday, the score remained stagnant at 2-2 until the 10th, when the Spartans used small ball to push through the winning run. Case advanced runners through the bases on bunts and singles, eventually driving in the go-ahead score on a sacrifice fly line out to left field. The Bears had a chance to even things up in the bottom of the inning, when they had runners on the corners with just one out, but Tang struck out and McKee grounded out to end the threat.

The series finale may have been even more devastating, as Wash. U. had rallied from two deficits to carry a 6-5 advantage into the seventh. But Case Western tied the game with a thud in the seventh, its number two hitter smacking a game-tying shot to start the seventh. The game remained 6-6 until the 10th, when Case Western’s cleanup hitter delivered another big blow with a go-ahead two-run shot.

The Bears again rallied to make things interesting in the bottom of the 10th. Tang cut the deficit in half with a single, but got tagged out at third two batters later to end Wash. U.’s weekend with an unsatisfying split.

Junior Maggie Clapp had a strong weekend, with only a pair of losses to show for it. She allowed nine runs, though just three were earned, over 18.2 innings, carrying the Red and Green through the long extra-innings affairs.

The Bears, in the midst of a 2-5 stretch, look to get back on track with the Wydown Showdown versus Fontbonne University Tuesday.