Junior Olivia Cook pitches against Augustana College on March 20th. Cook started two games over the weekend giving up only two earned runs in 13 innings.

“They’ve done a tremendous job keeping the games close until we can get timely hitting from the offense,” head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutté said. “It’s a huge asset when they can keep the opponent’s run total down.”

The Bears (24-7-1) defeated the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and No. 21 Illinois Wesleyan University at the Illinois Wesleyan University Tournament in Bloomington, Ill., on Saturday before returning home to sweep Webster University in a doubleheader on Sunday.

Cook and Voris combined to pitch every inning of the weekend’s games, coming away with a combined four wins, 34 strikeouts and only seven earned runs.

“Our job as pitchers is to create plays that make our teammates’ jobs easier, and when the team is playing great defense behind you, it creates a system of support that everyone can sense and build from. That is the ideal,” Voris said.

Wash. U. upset IWU in a thriller on Saturday afternoon that saw a pitcher’s battle carry into extra innings. With the score tied at 1-1, each team plated one run in the seventh inning to force the game to continue.

The Bears broke open the game in the eighth inning with three runs, two coming on freshman Kelsey Neal’s two-out, bases-loaded single to center field. Even though Voris gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth, Wash. U. held on for a 5-4 victory.

“It was a huge confidence builder to pull out a win like that against a great opponent like Illinois Wesleyan,” Pineda-Boutté said. “Our team is taking some great steps for us, and pulling out a win like that against a great team is always good for us.”

In the day’s first game, UW-Oshkosh scored in the top of the first inning, but Voris shut them out the rest of the way.

The Red and Green bats could not get anything going until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Neal homered to center to tie the game at 1-1, but finally put the game away with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

In the sixth, the middle of the order put together three straight singles before sophomore Alex Fjeldheim came on as a pinch-hitter and doubled to right-center field, pushing the lead to 4-1. Voris retired all three Titans’ batters she faced in the seventh inning to seal the win and her complete game two-hitter.

The Webster doubleheader on Sunday was part of the annual Strikeout Cancer event, a fundraiser that raised $1,327 towards cancer research, and Voris put on a clinic in the first game. She struck out 13 en route to her 11th win of the season.

“We had our Strikeout Cancer fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen foundation this weekend, and it was really wonderful to see Wash U. athletic teams coming out to support one another,” Voris said. “Softball is typically a pretty low attendance sport, and it meant a lot to have all those girls taking the time to come cheer us on.”

Freshman Maggie Mullen hit her team-leading seventh homerun of the season, and Neal hit her fourth of the season two batters later in the sixth inning to clinch the 6-3 win.

Cook followed with a gem of her own, pitching a two-hit, complete-game shutout. She got all the run support she needed in the first inning when Mullen doubled in two runs, and Cook stifled the Webster bats the rest of the way for a 5-0 win.

Wash. U. had struggled as of late in fielding, accumulating costly errors. However, in the four games this weekend, the Red and Green defense came to play, having just two errors in all.

“We’ve been having a tough time defensively lately in terms of errors, and it was nice to see us pull through in some situations where errors could have ended the game for us,” Voris said. “We are definitely still working to improve, but it’s nice to see we are on the right track.”

The Bears will travel to Fulton, Mo., on Wednesday for a doubleheader against Westminster College. Westminster is 4-11 on the season and on a six-game losing streak.

“We are definitely looking for our offense to continue to produce, continue to have great pitching, continue to have great defense and continue moving forward,” Pineda-Boutté said.