A set of weekend double-headers for Concordia University Chicago softball (10-23-1) against Benedictine University (22-11) may not have gone to plan on the scoreboard, but it was a huge weekend for one Cougar.
 
On Saturday at Benedictine, sophomore shortstop Becky Pieroni (Montgomery, Ill.) hit her 10th home run of the season in the fifth inning of Game 2; a two-run blast that scored Isabel Ortiz (Homer Glen, Ill.).
 
Saturday's first game finished 9-1 in the home team's favor with the lone CUC run driven home by senior outfielder Sydney Sterrett (Lafayette, Ind.) on a single that scored Sydney Paulauskis-Lauher (Chatham, Ill.).
 
The second game, a 6-2 Benedictine victory, also featured a strong performance from Cougars' pitcher Holly Bathje (Davis Junction, Ill.), who threw a complete game. In her six innings of work, Bathje didn't walk a single batter in the 30 she faced.
 
On Sunday, the teams squared off at CUC with the Eagles again taking both games. Despite facing a big deficit late in the day's first contest, the Cougars fought until the end with eight runs in their final two at-bats before falling 18-10. They were again led by Peroni, who launched a grand slam for her 11th home run this year and saw her surpass 40 runs batted in this season.
 
In the final game of the weekend, the Cougars overturned an early 4-0 deficit to lead 6-4 after three innings. Unfortunately, Benedictine responded with their second big inning of the weekend and went on to win 20-7. The game featured three home runs for CUC, including Hailey Howard's (Machesney Park, Ill.) second of the season and Alexis Hilgert's (Naperville, Ill.) first. Peroni smashed another, her 12th on the year to climb within one of the Concordia single-season record.
 
Bathje added eight more innings on the mound across the two games, becoming the first Cougar pitcher this season to surpass 100 innings pitched.
 
The Cougars will finish their regular season next Friday and Saturday with another four-game series against Aurora University.