As the school year races towards the finish line, so too does Washington University’s spring sports regular season. For men’s and women’s tennis, it has been another classically competitive season, as they sit ranked at No. 7 and No. 12, respectively. On one of the diamonds, softball’s recent seven-game winning streak pushed the team to a 32-8 record, a strong finish crucial to make the tournament with an at-large bid. Meanwhile, baseball under first-year head coach, Pat Bloom, has pitched and hit just enough to cruise to a respectable 22-13. Rounding out the programs, both track and field teams have enjoyed top performances, and golf finished its last meet of the season ranked 15th in the nation. To keep you updated on the finer points of their seasons, here is an update of all the notable statistics.
MEN’S TENNIS
4-4 record for men’s tennis after beginning the season 2-2 at the ITA National Indoor championships. The run has been highlighted by a 7-2 win over conference foe, No. 6 Case Western Reserve University on April 10 and a 6-3 win over No. 12 Trinity University on the second. Now sitting at 14-4 with the hotly contested University Athletic Association tournament fast approaching, the Bears will need every ounce of momentum they can muster if they hope to compete in a conference field that features five teams ranked in the top eight nationally.
35 home winning streak for men’s tennis team was snapped last weekend in a 9-0 shellacking by Division II No. 16 Northwest Missouri State University. The Bears’ last defeat at home came all the way back on Feb. 9, 2013. The Red and Green are also 110-5 in the last 12 years on home court. As a side note, the Bears were last swept back in 2014, when they lost 4-0 against Division I University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
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Stephen Huber | Student LifeSOFTBALL
53 games is junior center fielder Janet Taylor’s current reached-base-safely streak—a string that extends all the way back to mid-April of last season. As a result, she currently leads the team with a .554 on base percentage, and her 22 walks tie the single-season school record.
206 strikeouts by senior Annie Pitkin in just 133.2 innings places her third in NCAA in total punch-outs and second in strikeouts per seven for pitchers with at least 100 IP. With at least eight games to play and a minimum of 40 innings, Pitkin will need to average 1.33 strikeouts per inning to pass her current career high of 236. Luckily for her, she’s been averaging a strikeout and a half all season.
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Skyler Kessler | Student LifeGOLF
5.75 is the average finish for the golf team in its last four tournaments of the regular season. This comes a year after the Bears placed third or higher in every tournament they played. Now, a year after finishing third in the Division III golf championships, the Bears are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since their inaugural season in 2009.
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Stephen Huber | Student LifeBASEBALL
55 RBIs for junior Ben Browdy, who currently leads all of Division III this season. After the second baseman registered just 81 at-bats in his first two seasons on campus, Browdy has broken out in a big way with a 0.338/0.367/0.524 slashline, while leading the team in home runs (4), doubles (11) and total bases (76).
2.35 walks per nine innings for the baseball team’s pitching staff, a figure good enough for 10th-best in Division III. Despite a mixed success rate, the Bears’ sharp control helps them maintain a respectable 1.29 team WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) and 3.89 ERA.
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Stephen Huber | Student LifeTRACK AND FIELD
24.24 seconds was the winning time in the women’s 200-meter for Daisy Ogede at the Greenville Select Meet last weekend. Ogede’s time is currently the fastest recorded in the event by a 0.09 second margin. Last year, Ogede won the 200m at UAAs with a time of 25.14. Nearly, a second faster now, she can defend her title at the conference meet this weekend at Bushyhead track.
0.41 seconds was how much faster junior Kelli Hancock ran the 400m hurdle than any other woman in Division III at the Greenville meet. Hancock clocked in with a time of 1:01.60, but she could still improve. Last year at UAAs she ran a career-best 1:01.49 in the event.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
125 wins for junior Rebecca Ho as she marches her way up the Bears leaderboard. If she continues to average 45 wins, as she has in her first two years on campus, she could end up somewhere near Debbie Michelson (‘92) who ended her Wash. U. career with a school-record 183 victories on the tennis court. Meanwhile, two of her teammates are also making their own pushes in their senior seasons. Jamie Silverberg’s 134 wins currently rank fourth all time and Aly Coran’s 127 give her a chance to push into the top five by the season’s end.
3-0 record for Ho against top-five ranked singles opponents in the past three weeks. The run is part of her current nine-match winning streak at first-singles, highlighted by a dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over the University of Chicago’s No. 4 Ariana Iranpour.