With Major League Baseball starting up again this weekend, fans may fondly be remembering one of the final plays of last year’s season—Eric Hosmer’s 80-foot home plate sprint in the ninth inning to send game five of the World Series to extra innings. As if to pay homage to what instantly became a classic moment in Missouri sports history, the Washington University softball team delivered its own mad dash home in the ninth inning to earn a dramatic 2–1 victory over Buena Vista University on Sunday in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
With the score knotted 1-1 and junior right fielder Kenzie James dancing off third base, junior center fielder Janet Taylor hit a sharp ground ball at the first baseman. Once she saw the ball hit dirt, James was sprinting towards home. James and head coach Leticia Pineda-Boutte had decided before the play that she was running on anything on the ground.
“I didn’t have to think about it,” James said. “As soon as I saw the ball angled down I knew that I was going.”
It became a race between James and how quickly the first baseman could get the ball home. The Beavers’ first baseman bobbled the ball, James slid in ahead of the tag and the Bears won.
“It was close all game so I think we were all extremely excited and just glad that we could pull it off,” James said.
When Hosmer scored the tying run, he did so by forcing an errant throw from the New York Mets’ first baseman. The Bears earned their victory by forcing the same defensive pressure.
“The first baseman was a little flustered; I think because she knew it was going to be a close play,” James said.
To quote former Grantland writer Rany Jazayerli on how the Royals—and now the Bears—manage to pull out improbable victories, “They put the ball in play, and they run like hell.”
James’ sprint was the culmination of a tight pitching duel that began emphatically with three swinging strikeouts by Buena Vista, courtesy of senior pitcher Annie Pitkin.
The Bears struck first in the bottom of the third when James beat out a bunt single. After advancing to second on a passed ball, James scored on a single to right center by Taylor. Both Taylor and James finished with two hits apiece.
The Beavers evened the score in the top of the sixth with back to back two-out doubles.
Pitkin scattered six hits over seven innings and struck out 13, giving her 707 strikeouts for her career. She improved to 14–3 on the season.
In the bottom of the seventh, James laid down a bunt single with one out and advanced to second on an errant throw by the third baseman. A single by junior left fielder Hannah Merhle put James on third before Taylor’s decisive ground ball.
The win against Buena Vista capped off a four-game weekend which featured a 9–2, 3–4 doubleheader split against No. 20 Central College (Iowa) on Saturday and a 7–1 win against the University of Dubuque the next day.
In the first game of the doubleheader, the Bears poured on 13 hits led by freshman infielder Taylor Arends, who collected four hits and four runs batted in, both career highs. Taylor, Mehrle and sophomore DP Maggie Clapp also collected multiple hits in the game. The Bears struck for three runs each in each of the first, second and fourth innings.
On the mound, Pitkin pitched seven innings of two-run ball with 12 strikeouts while giving up a season-high 10 hits.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Bears found themselves knotted in a 3–3 tie heading into the bottom of the seventh. After starting pitcher Clapp put two runners on to lead off the inning, Pitkin came in to relieve her. After a single loaded the bases, Pitkin uncorked a wild pitch, allowing the run to score and end the game.
Clapp suffered the loss, despite only giving up one earned run in six-plus innings. She has been the victim of some shaky Bears defense in recent weeks, having given up nine runs over her past three appearances, just two of them earned. Over the course of the season, nearly half of her allowed runs have been unearned.
Against Dubuque, Taylor and senior first baseman Brooke Hofer collected three hits each and Clapp allowed no earned runs in seven innings with six strikeouts for her seventh win of the season.
The Bears head to Bloomington, Illinois next weekend for the Illinois Wesleyan University tournament. While there, they will face off against Hope College, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and DePauw University.