St. Louis, Mo., March 6, 2021 – The Washington University in St. Louis softball team picked up its first win of the season with a 9-2 win over Buena Vista Saturday at the Westhill Softball Fields in Ellisville, Mo.

The Bears backed a solid defensive effort with consistent offense to lead the Beavers from start to finish. WashU improved to 1-2 on the young season while Buena Vista fell to 6-2. 

"I was happy to see our offense put pressure on their defense in multiple innings," said WashU head coach Michelle Venturella. "Our pitchers did a nice job of creating outs for our defense. Overall, it was great to come back out and see our team bounce back and get the win."

Playing as the visiting team, WashU held BV scoreless through the first four innings while building to a 7-0 lead. The Bears defense came in clutch, stranding six Beaver runners in the first four frames.

WashU jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on a pair of sacrifice flies by Kayla Nommensen and Ashley Kennedy before adding two more in the second inning on RBI singles by Payton Irwin and Katie Gould. WashU added two more in the fourth inning on a two-run triple by Tami Wong before Nicole Hay knocked an RBI single in the fifth to put the Bears up 7-0.

The Beavers finally got on board in the fifth, tallying an unearned run on a WashU fielding error. After a scoreless sixth inning, WashU added two more insurance runs in the seventh as Hay and Irwin both scored on BV fielding errors. The Beavers added a run in the bottom of the seventh before junior pitcher Madison Denton closed out the win.

Denton had a solid day in the circle after coming in relief of starter Holly Stoner in the third inning. Denton (1-1) struck out three and only surrendered one earned run on six hits five innings to pick up the win. 

A balanced WashU offense saw seven different players pick up a hit and six different players score runs. Hay led the Bears offense going 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored while shortstop Gould also had multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.