Megan Magray | Student Life

Graduate student Matt Tracy winds up for a pitch on Sunday against the University of Chicago. Tracy pitched six shutout innings, recording two strikeouts and surrendering four hits. Tracy’s pitching record is 3-2, and he has a 3.45 ERA this season.

The Bears posted their third straight victory with a 6-4 win in the first game of the doubleheader, but the Bears couldn’t sustain the momentum as they fell 5-4 against the Maroons. On Sunday, Wash. U. used a strong pitching performance and balanced hitting to dominate Chicago (4-13 record) with a 12-1 victory.

In the first game, the Bears broke a 4-4 tie in the eighth inning to earn a 6-4 victory on “John Schael Day” as Wash. U.’s current athletic director, John Schael, who will be retiring in June, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Senior Kyle Billig (2-4 at the plate) singled to right field to give Wash. U. a 5-4 lead, and junior Andrew Goldstick (2-3) drove in an insurance run when he ran out an infield single to the shortstop.

Graduate starting pitcher Stephen Bonser pitched seven innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on eight hits. Freshman Nick Gollin (2-1 record) recorded the win for the Bears with two shutout innings in relief.

Head coach Steven Duncan praised his team for its clutch hitting in the late innings, but he was not completely pleased with the Bears’ overall performance.

“It was the definition of clutch to come through with two runs late in the game like that to win it, and I was really proud of those guys for stepping up,” Duncan said. “Today, even with the win, we frankly didn’t play very well. We got the win because those guys stepped up late in the game. Of course we like to win, but I like to see us play well whether we’ve won or lost, and I just didn’t think that we played very well today.”

In the second game of the doubleheader, the Bears offense started quickly but fizzled out later in the game. After Chicago scored a run in the top of the first inning, the Red and Green scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Junior Chris Lowery hit an RBI single to center field, freshman CJ Price then belted an RBI single to left field and junior Brandon Deger hit a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. In the second inning, the Bears tallied another run, but Chicago made a pitching change in the middle of the inning, which proved to be effective since the Bears would not score for the rest of the game.

The fifth inning proved to be problematic for the Bears as Chicago rallied with three runs on three hits to knot the game at 4-4. The Bears’ starting pitcher, junior Kunal Patel, was taken out of the game after throwing five innings and allowing four runs on seven hits.

Junior Max Zhang pitched in relief for the Bears, and although he only gave up one run, it was the go-ahead score—Chicago completed the comeback in the seventh inning by scoring after a leadoff double to take a 5-4 lead. The Bears struggled to get runners on base in the final innings and lost by that same score to take a split in the day’s doubleheader.

After scoring four runs in the first two innings, the Bears were shut out in the final seven innings and had only two hits in the final six. Duncan gave credit to Chicago’s relief pitchers while also acknowledging that his team didn’t have the same sense of urgency offensively as earlier in the game.

“I mean, they changed pitchers, which obviously helped them. I can’t take it away from their guys, those next two guys got the job done,” Duncan said. “Unfortunately, it’s been a little bit of a theme this year that when we score early in the game, we kind of put it on cruise control. We should know better than that, but apparently it’s a lesson that we continue to have to learn.”

Looking ahead to Sunday’s game, Duncan was looking for a complete team effort with graduate starting pitcher Matt Tracy on the mound.

“We’re excited to see what he can do. He’s been very good, very reliable for us this year, and I think it’s a good matchup for him, but it’s not one guy against Chicago. We need the rest of our guys to support him, both offensively and defensively,” Duncan said.

In the rubber game, Tracy and the rest of the team delivered with a balance performance both offensively and defensively. The Bears exploded for five runs in the first inning, marking the third time this weekend that the team scored in the first. This time, though, the Bears were able to sustain their offensive prowess en route to a resounding 12-1 victory to take the best-of-three series. The Red and Green recorded 14 hits and took advantage of four Chicago errors to give Tracy plenty of offensive support. Tracy (3-2 record), meanwhile, lowered his earned run average to 3.45 with six shutout innings, allowing four hits and five walks.

Wash. U. (11-13) is now 4-1 in its past five games, and the team looks to finish its 14-game homestand on a strong note with three more home games this week.