Senior Ashley Kennedy, pictured here in an early season game, was one of six Bears to hit a homerun in one game on April 21. (Yiwen Zha | Student Life)

On Sunday, April 21, Washington University junior Erin Reardon watched from the dugout as her teammate, junior Taylor Geluck, drove a high fly ball into center field. As the rest of the dugout watched with her, Reardon knew they were all thinking the same thing:

“Everyone just knew it was going out,” she said. 

After seeing five of her teammates hit home runs already that day, Reardon was no stranger to what a long ball looked like off the bat. When the ball finally did land over the fence, the WashU softball team had tied the University Athletic Association (UAA) record for home runs in a single game. 

“I don’t even know how to put the feeling into words,” Reardon added. “It was so exciting. It was almost like it wasn’t real.”

Geluck joined graduate student Payton Irwin, senior Ashley Kennedy, sophomore Sydney Schneider, and juniors Natalia Pilpil and Maggie Baumstark as the other WashU hitters to record home runs in the game, powering WashU to a 9-6 victory in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader. The win was one of three that the Bears secured over the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Tartans across their two doubleheaders from April 20-21, leaving the Bears one game behind conference leaders Case Western Reserve University, with one week remaining in the regular season.

While the Bears’ bats broke out in the Sunday game, their success was far from guaranteed as the Tartans took the series opener in extra innings on Saturday. WashU held a 2-1 lead heading into the seventh inning before CMU tied the game down to their final out. WashU responded by putting up two runs in the eighth inning, but with the bases loaded in the bottom half of the frame, a Tartan single and an error by Baumstark in center field allowed all three runs to score, giving CMU a 5-4 walk-off win.

WashU first-year Maria Brooks was tagged with the loss on the mound after working 7.1 innings and allowing five runs, four of them earned. Her 1.49 ERA this season still leads the UAA.

“Softball is one of those sports where, every once in a while, you do lose a game where you know you could have won, and you know you should have,” junior pitcher Jamie Burgasser said. “After that game, we came together and we talked, and we knew that we could beat this team and that we were going to [next game].”

In response to that message, the team came through with a win in the second game of the doubleheader. WashU played a back-and-forth game, leading 4-0 early before CMU tied the game in the fourth inning. After the teams traded runs in the fifth inning, the Bears scored the final four runs of the game to win 9-5.

Reardon, Pilpil, and first-year Elena Locascio all recorded multiple hits and RBI in the contest. On the mound, first-year Hattie Bond picked up the win after pitching three innings in relief of Burgasser.

Junior Jamie Burgasser improved to a 6-2 record on the mound this season. (Yiwen Zha | Student Life)

WashU got out to another strong start in Sunday’s first game with four runs in the first inning, thanks to a pair of two-run home runs by Schneider and Irwin. All but one of WashU’s nine runs came through home runs in their record-tying performance. The Bears maintained a comfortable lead all game for junior pitcher Jordan Rossi, who worked seven innings and allowed six runs.

In addition to the home runs, every starter in Sunday’s first game recorded at least one hit, building on the trend of lineup depth that the Bears have benefitted from all season.

“It’s so reassuring when you hit to know that ‘If I don’t make it happen, I know the person behind me or the person after that will make it happen,’” Reardon, the Bears’ regular leadoff hitter, said. “Not just starters — everyone, all 22 of us, have the ability to go up there and cause chaos.”

WashU kept the offensive momentum going in the series finale, this time scoring six runs in the first inning. The team never looked back, scoring two more in the game to win 8-1 and close out the series victory.

Reardon went 2-3 with an RBI in the win, capping off a 7-14, three-RBI weekend. Pilpil added a pair of hits and two RBI, going 8-13 with six RBI in the series. Sophomore catcher Alexa Hanish also added a two-run home run in the victory. 

Burgasser made her second start of the series for the Bears and pitched a complete game, allowing only one run on five hits. With the win, her season record improves to 6-2 and her 1.84 ERA is third-best in the UAA.

“Every win this past weekend was a team win,” Burgasser said. “Our hitters were great, our pitchers were great. I just want to keep moving forward with our confidence and with almost a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

With the wins, WashU improves to 23-9 overall and 12-4 in conference play. However, the Bears did fall one game back of Case Western for first place in the UAA after the Spartans, who the Bears beat in three out of four matchups earlier in the season, swept their weekend series. 

The Bears will return to St. Louis and host the Emory University Eagles in their final home series from April 26-28 before the team closes out their season with two games against the University of Chicago, which is not in the UAA for softball. If the Bears perform well against Emory, and Case Western struggles in their upcoming series against Carnegie Mellon, WashU could walk away with their first UAA crown since 2017. However, the Bears aim to concentrate mostly on their own series this weekend.

“The best we can do is go out on the field and give it our all every time, and the standings are going to end up how they’re going to end up,” Reardon said. “We’re not just what our record was in conference in that we’ve built throughout the season a lot more than what the numbers can show.”