A week after winning the University Athletic Association championship, the Washington University baseball team saw its wave of momentum come to a halt by splitting four games against Illinois Wesleyan University and Concordia University Chicago.

Senior Zack Kessinger hits a single to right field in the Bears’ game against Concordia University-Chicago on Sunday. Wash. U. lost the game in extra innings after committing six errors in the game.

In its home-opening weekend, the Bears (11-5 record) used two late rallies to best Illinois Wesleyan, 3-2, and Concordia-Chicago, 6-5, but couldn’t hang onto leads against the same opponents in 12-9 and 6-5 defeats, respectively.

Despite the two defeats, head coach Steve Duncan was encouraged by the team’s ability to rally to win games late, and he pointed to the team’s veteran presence at the plate—six out of nine starters are upperclassmen—as a contributing factor.

“I don’t think a late-game deficit scares this team. We’ve got guys that have seen it all over their three or four years playing for us,” Duncan said. “We have faced a lot of deficits, but we’ve got guys who know what they can do, so when they get those situations, they are able to take advantage. We’ve faced some really good pitchers where we haven’t had success early on, but then we’ve kept at it and not given up and then gotten results late in the game.”

On Friday, the Bears fell behind early against IWU after sophomore starting pitcher Brad Margolin allowed a run in each of the first two innings while the Red and Green were held scoreless for the first seven.

However, Margolin found his groove and shut out the Titans for the remainder of his eight-inning outing to keep Wash. U. within distance before the offense finally broke through in the eighth. Sophomore CJ Price and senior Chris Lowery each belted RBI singles to tie the game, and senior Brian Cizek hit a sacrifice fly to score the go-ahead run. In the ninth inning, sophomore relief pitcher Matt Clohisy retired the side in order to nab his third save of the season and preserve the team’s eighth consecutive victory.

Looking to extend their winning streak, the Red and Green appeared to break the weekend’s second game open with a five-run second inning to take a commanding 7-2 lead. But senior starting pitcher Max Zhang walked three batters and gave up two hits in the third inning as the Titans trimmed the deficit to 7-6. Junior relief pitcher Michael Johnson didn’t fare any better as he walked the leadoff batter en route to conceding four runs on four hits.

“We jumped out by five runs and then started walking guys. That’s just not a recipe for success; that’s not winning baseball. That’s not aggressive baseball and we pride ourselves on being aggressive,” Head Coach Steve Duncan said. “When we have a lead, we need to pitch like we have a lead…and make them earn their way on base, and we didn’t do that against [IWU].”

The Titans plated two more runs in the seventh innings to increase their lead to 12-7 and the Bears responded with two runs of their own in the eighth, but the comeback bid fell short.

In the latter game of the doubleheader, the Bears bounced back against Concordia-Chicago with another late-inning rally. Trailing 5-4 in the seventh inning, the Bears took advantage of a fielding error on a sacrifice bunt to tie the game. With runners on the corners and two outs, senior Zack Kessinger swung on the first pitch and hit a groundball that sneaked under the glove of the second baseman to plate to drive in the game-winning run.

Kessinger, who recorded five RBIs on the day, credited an aggressive mentality for his recent success at the plate.

“I’m just working on getting my foot down early and just trying to recognize the pitch. I’m trying to swing at strikes now and not chase so much, but if I get a fastball early in the count I’m going to swing at it,” Kessinger said.

With the hopes of avoiding a split of this weekend’s games and emerging with a winning record, the Bears’ offense tallied 16 hits against Concordia-Chicago on Sunday afternoon, but the Red and Green committed six errors and lost, 6-5, in 12 innings.

After trailing 4-3 in the seventh inning, the Bears plated two runs and appeared destined to win their third come-from-behind victory of the weekend. However, a Wash. U. fielding error turned a leadoff single into a runner at third base with nobody out, and the Cougars drove in the runner to send the game into extra innings.

Neither team mounted much of an attack in the 10th inning, but the Bears wasted a golden opportunity in the 11th after the team failed to score despite having the bases loaded and nobody out. The Cougars finally won the game in the 12th inning with a successful squeeze bunt with runners on the corners.

The Red and Green return to the baseball diamond with a home game against Fontbonne University on Wednesday before traveling to Greenville College for two games on Saturday.