Taking on a struggling Fontbonne University Tuesday in St. Ann, MO—the Griffins entered the contest 4-11 on the season—the Washington University softball team took care of business, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and sailing to a 7-1 victory.

With this year’s installment of the Wydown Showdown in enemy territory, the Bears took their hacks first looking to seize control of the game. But while they threatened the Griffins in the first, Fontbonne escaped an early stranglehold: Three baserunners went for naught after a caught stealing and two-out groundout.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Mikaela Arredondo hits a pitch during Wash. U.’s game against Illinois Wesleyan University March 24. Tuesday, the Bears played another edition of the Wydown Showdown against Fontbonne University, downing the Griffins 7-1 to improve their record to 8-7 on the season.

Nevertheless, freshman pitcher Holly Stoner, making her first start in 10 days after three consecutive relief appearances, left no doubt which squad had the upper hand in the bottom of the frame. Stoner set down all three Griffin batters on strikes, the last two swinging, in a show of pure dominance.

In their next turn up, the Red and Green took full advantage of Fontbonne’s ineptitude. The Griffins committed three errors in the first four batters, setting the stage for a trio of unearned runs via a sacrifice fly and single.

Stoner’s second inning resembled her first in that she recorded all three outs in the same manner—this time, with three lineouts. A familiar problem reared its ugly head, however, as she also allowed a home run in the midst of the sequence. The homer was her fourth allowed on the year; the rest of the pitching staff has only allowed three combined all season.

Still, Stoner, like graduated Bear Maggie Clapp, is showing that a pitcher’s aggregate performance can be positive despite a nasty home run propensity. Clapp, too, allowed at least four homers in each of her four seasons, retiring with a career ERA of 2.11. Stoner, in her first go-round, stands at 2.80—just slightly behind fellow freshman Madison Denton’s 2.75 for best on the team.

Wash. U. continued to add runs throughout the contest. It put the ball in the air in the third—two fly balls, a line drive and a single—to no avail. The output came in the next inning, again on the back of Griffin miscues, this time two, good for another two unearned runs. Wash. U. added another unearned run in the sixth before manufacturing one final earned run in the seventh.

Denton closed out the contest with four no-hit innings. It was especially impressive, given she had allowed 50 hits in her previous 37.1 innings. Stoner and Denton were pairwise efficient, combining to throw just 87 pitches over the seven frames.

Junior center fielder Amy Walsh was three-for-three with three RBIs to raise her on-base percentage to .411, still a notch below her career .436 mark. She also recently moved past the 200-at-bat minimum necessary to qualify for the career Bear record book, where her even .400 batting average stands fifth all-time. She also stands top-10 in OBP and slugging percentage as one of the greatest hitters ever to wear the red and green.

Wash. U. will spend its next two weekends at home with a pair of four-game UAA series, first against Brandeis University, then Emory University.