The team’s ERA slots them in the top 25 of all Division III pitching staffs. Opponents have a .208 batting average against WashU’s pitchers and have scored 81 runs in comparison to WashU’s 231. 

Senior pitcher Matt Ashbaugh was named to the all-University Athletic Association second team last year and enters the season as the Bears’ ace.

The great baseball statistician Bill James gained fame for debunking the sport’s old cliche that pitching is 90 percent of the game. But for Washington University, as the team’s pitching goes, so do the Bears.

Every year senior ace Annie Pitkin has been on the Washington University softball pitching staff, she’s improved. As a freshman, she put together a 3.28 ERA in 111 innings. As a sophomore, it was 1.96 in 167.2. In her junior and most recent season, she twirled a 1.62 ERA in 169.0. It is not clear where her ceiling may be in her final season, but she is also excited about seeing the same development in the rest of the Bears pitching staff.

After Central College snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Washington University baseball team on Saturday, sophomore Stephen Bonser propelled the team back into the winning column with the strongest outing of the year by a Wash. U. pitcher.

For one Washington University pitcher, junior Bryce Hrovat, recovery from Tommy John’s surgery has been a long and painful process.