St. Louis, Mo., May 2, 2021 — The Washington University in St. Louis softball team closed its 2021 season with a doubleheader split against Fontbonne Sunday at the WU Softball Field.

A late-game surge lifted the Griffins (16-17) to a 10-6 win in the opener before senior Natasha Ramakrishnan's seventh-inning walkoff gave the Bears (12-10) a 4-3 win in Game 2. 

Game 1

WashU took a 6-5 lead into the seventh inning before Fontbonne errupted for five runs in the final frame to run away with a win in the opener.

Game 1 was a back-and-forth affair that saw four ties and three lead changes. The Griffins opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the first inning before the Bears battled back to tie the score at 2-2 in the fourth inning. First year Ashley Kennedy hit an RBI single in the third inning while senior Kendall Schwartz knocked an RBI single in the fourth.

Fontbonne added three runs in the top of the fifth before WashU answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to pull within 5-4. Junior Nicole Hay drove in one fifth-inning run on a sacrifice fly while sophomore Eimear Cunningham added an RBI single. 

Junior Katie Gould drove in a run in the sixth inning to tie the game at 5-5 before Kennedy picked up another RBI single to give WashU the 6-5 advantage heading into the last inning.

The Griffins took advantage of two errors by the Bears in the seventh inning and strung together some timely hits to fuel its seventh-inning erruption.

Kennedy went 3-for-4 with a piar of RBIs to lead the WashU offense while Gould and Cunningham each picked up two hits and an RBI and Gould stole two bases. Junior Madison Denton (5-5) suffered the loss after allowing eight runs, two earned, on nine hits while striking out five in 5.2 innings of work.

Game 2

WashU trailed 3-1 entering its final at-bat before closing out the game with five consecutive hits, including Ramakrishnan's walkoff RBI single. 

Both teams struggled to get their bats going in a rainy Game 2 that was scoreless through the first three innings. Fontbonne added one run in the fourth, while the Bears answered with a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Kennedy. 

Fontbonne added two runs in the sixth on a sacrifice fly and a dropped fly ball by Ramakrishnan in left field to take the 3-1 lead.

Sophomore Tami Wong started WashU's seventh-inning hit parade with a solo home run, her ninth of the season. Hay followed with a single to center field and Kennedy hit a single to move pinch runner Emily Talkow to second base. Cunningham added an RBI single to drive in the game-tying run, and Kennedy advanced to third on a Fontbonne error.

Ramakrishnan redeemed her sixth-inning error by sending Griffins pitcher Lexi Becker's offering into the outfield to drive in Kennedy for the deciding run. 

Ramakrishnan was 3-for-4 with the winning RBI in Game 2 while Kennedy went 4-for-4 with an RBI and scored the winning run. Junior Holly Stoner picked up the win after striking out six and allowing three runs on four hits in seven innings of work.