Stephen Huber | Student Life

The Washington University softball team celebrates a run against Coe College on March 22. The Bears went 2-2 on a weekend road trip through Iowa, during which they split games on consecutive days to continue their recent run of .500 play.

On Saturday, the Bears fell behind early in both of their games, but they were able to mount a determined comeback in a 9-5 victory against St. Scholastica College before suffering a 3-2 defeat against No. 12 Central College (Iowa).

The two splits left the Bears with a 16-9 record and a middling 8-9 mark since their undefeated 8-0 start.

As the afternoon wore on, the Bears found themselves in a deep hole in the second game against Simpson as they trailed 7-2 in the top of the seventh. Wash. U. conjured up a thrilling comeback, though, by scoring nine runs in the final inning. After a pair of runs cut the lead to 7-4, freshman Hannah Mehrle laced a two-run single to cut the lead to 7-6. Then, senior Maggie Ingell doubled home two more runs to give the Bears an 8-7 lead. The onslaught would continue as the Bears drove in four more runs to steal a game that seemed out of reach. Sophomore Amanda Kalupa (3-0 record), earned the win in relief, pitching two-thirds of an inning with one strikeout, while sophomore Annie Pitkin closed out the game for the Bears.

Senior Kelsey Neal said that the players fed off each other’s enthusiasm during the comeback.

“The energy in the dugout was insane and it just got very contagious,” Neal said. “Once we’re on fire, it’s hard to stop.”

“We had a rough first game against Simpson, but luckily we had chance for revenge,” Pitkin said. “We knew that we could do better. It didn’t start off the way we wanted to, but things got a lot better at the last inning. Kalupa just got us going and we fed off of that.”

In the first game of the doubleheader, Simpson grabbed a 2-0 lead against Wash. U. with runs in both the first and second inning. However, junior Sydney Caldwell knotted the game up for the Bears with a two-run home run in the fourth inning, her second of the season. The fifth inning would spell the demise for the Red and Green, as a leadoff home run gave Simpson the go-ahead run and eventual victory.

Junior Alyssa Wilson went 2-3 in a game in which the Bears only had six hits. Pitkin picked up the loss, allowing three hits and three earned runs in five innings pitched.

In the first game on Saturday, the Bears found themselves behind for a third straight game after a two-out home run gave St. Scholastica a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Red and Green fought back in the bottom half of the first when Neal singled and graduate student Stacy Berg hit a two-run home run to cut the lead to 3-2. After the Saints added a run in the third, Wash. U. took over in the bottom half of the inning by scoring three runs to take the lead. The Bears added two more runs in the fourth inning before Neal, who finished 3-4, extended the Bears’ lead to 9-4 with a two-RBI single in the fifth.

“We were watching pitches that were balls and making sure to take advantage of pitches that were good,” Neal said. “That approach at bat gave us good hits, and when we hit good pitches, we’re a very good team.”

The final game of the weekend had the Bears trailing 3-0 again after the first inning. The first 10 Bears hitters were retired before Wilson doubled to right in the fourth, but the Bears could not take advantage as they failed to score in the inning. In Wash. U.’s final comeback bid, Caldwell hit an RBI double that trimmed the lead to 3-1. Ingell then singled on the first pitch to pull the Bears within one, but the rally fell short in the 3-2 defeat.

Pitkin (7-7) took the loss, allowing four hits and three earned runs in six innings. Despite the loss, Pitkin still leads the University Athletic Association (UAA) with a .152 batting average against.

“We really played our best this weekend,” Neal said. “We had good at-bats and everybody was hitting, so that was good to see.”

The Bears return to action against Webster University on Tuesday, April 1, with the doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. in Webster Groves, Mo.

With additional reporting by Derek Shyr.