From Washington University Athletics
With a steady rain falling throughout the game, the Washington University in St. Louis baseball team scored double-digit runs for the fifth straight game to earn a 13-3 Senior Day victory in eight innings over the University of Chicago Sunday afternoon at GCS Ballpark.
WashU improved to 23-12 with the win, while Chicago dropped to 9-15. The Bears are scheduled to return to action with a doubleheader at Principia College beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 21.
Chicago got back-to-back two-out singles to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The Bears got their offense going in the bottom of the third. Junior Kyle Kozak drew a four-pitch walk to start the inning and sophomore Ben Browdy followed with a single up the middle. Junior Max Golembo lined a double down the left-field line that bounced off the bullpen wall and back into left field. Kozak and Browdy both came around to score and Golembo was able to slide into third on the play. Sophomore Austin Darmawan followed with a groundout to second that scored Golembo to give WashU a 3-1 lead.
Senior Zack Kessinger led off the bottom of the fourth with a ground-rule double that hopped the fence in right-center field. Sophomore CJ Price then lined a single over the shortstop to score Kessinger and extend the Bears' lead to 4-1. Kozak and Browdy drew back-to-back one-out walks to load the bases, and senior Andrew Goldstick pushed a sacrifice bunt down the first-base line to advance all the runners and make the score 5-1. Golembo ripped a triple into right-center field to extend the Bears' lead to 7-1.
After giving up the run in the top of the first, sophomore Scott Nelson retired 10 of the next 11 batters he faced. The Maroons got a leadoff single in the top of the fifth and Max Larsen drove a homerun over the fence in right-center to bring Chicago to within 7-3. WashU answered in the bottom of the inning when senior Chris Lowery reached on a leadoff walk and Price lifted a ball high over the right-field fence for the first homerun of his career to regain a six-run lead for the Bears.
With the score still 9-3 in favor of WashU, Goldstick started the bottom of the eighth with a walk and Golembo singled through the right side. After a double steal, Darmawan grounded out to shortstop for his second RBI of the game as Goldstick scored to make it 10-3. Lowery then drew the Bears' eighth walk of the game to bring up Kessinger, who stroked a two-RBI double to right-center. With Price at the plate, Kessinger advanced to third on a passed ball, before scoring the game-ending run on a wild pitch to seal the 13-3 win for WashU.
WashU outhit Chicago 9-7, and five of the Bears' nine hits went for extra bases. Golembo was 3-for-5 with a double, a triple, four RBIs and two runs scored. Kessinger finished 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored, and Price went 2-for-4 with a homerun, three RBIs and two runs. Nelson improved to 5-0 on the season, earning the first complete-game win of his career. He allowed three runs on seven hits and struck out three batters without allowing a walk.
Bear Notebook: Prior to the game, WashU recognized its 10 seniors – Brian Cizek, Brandon Deger, Goldstick, Ian Kelso, Kessinger, Lowery, Stewart Martens, Kunal Patel, Dom Quaranta and Max Zhang – who have helped the Bears to a 104-57 record in their four seasons … Nelson is tied for the team lead with 34 strikeouts this season … Price is the fourth individual to hit a homerun for WashU this season … Kessinger's two doubles brought his career total to 41, tying him for fifth on WashU's all-time leaderboard with Mark Glover (1999-02) … Kessinger also passed Brandon Rogalski (2009-12) for third on WashU's all-time career RBIs list, bringing his career total to 143 … Lowery played in his 150th career game for the Bears … Kessinger extended his streak of reaching base safely to 40 games, dating to April 30, 2014.