April 17, 2008

SOFTBALL: Lutes Host Bottom Teams in Conference Standings

COMING UP: Pacific Lutheran (13-19 overall, 10-10 NWC) hosts George Fox (3-27-1 overall, 3-21 NWC) at noon on Saturday (see note below) and hosts Lewis & Clark (2-29 overall, 2-22 NWC) at noon on Sunday in Northwest Conference doubleheaders.

SPECIAL NOTE: Because of a lack of healthy players, George Fox is unable to field a complete team. As a result, those games scheduled for Saturday have been canceled. NCAA rules stipulate that those games are not forfeits, but instead are considered "no contest." As a result, neither team's record will reflect the cancellation.

LUTES HOST BRUINS, PIONEERS: One weekend after it hosted defending conference and national champion Linfield, and also one of the NWC’s top three in Willamette, Pacific Lutheran will host the teams at the bottom of the standings. On Saturday, George Fox comes to Parkland for a twinbill against the Lutes. PLU swept the Bruins, 4-1 and 11-1 in five innings, in the NWC season-opening doubleheader for the teams back on March 1. On Sunday, it will be PLU versus Lewis & Clark, which the Lutes beat 5-1 and 8-2 back on March 2. George Fox comes into the games with only nine players, recently adding basketball player Jordan Westering to their roster because of injury problems. Westering, by the way, is the daughter of PLU football head coach Scott Westering. The Bruins are hitting just .208 as a team compared to their opponents’ .402, and they have been out-scored, 267-78, this season. Lewis & Clark is hitting .201 as a team compared to .380 for their opponents, and they have been out-scored, 240-57.

LINFIELD DOUBLEHEADER NOTES: Linfield scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning of the second game to take a hard-fought 6-4 victory over PLU and with it a sweep of a Northwest Conference softball doubleheader last Saturday. The visiting Wildcats also won the opener, 6-0. Linfield ralled from a 3-1 deficit in the second game, scoring two in the sixth inning to tie it and adding another in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead. PLU tied it in its half of the seventh when Beth Haahr dropped a single into left field to score Carly Starke, who had reached on a looping double that just eluded Linfield shortstop Meredith Brunette. The Wildcats finally won the game in the ninth, combining four hits to score two runs. PLU scored a run in the first when Heather Walling hit a triple and came across on a Linfield error. After Linfield got one back in the second, the Lutes tallied two more in the third. Rachel Wheeler-Hoyt led off with a double and she moved to third on Starke's single. The pair then pulled off a double steal for the first run, and Starke scored on Brittney Weissenbuehler's run-scoring double. By the time that the game was decided in the ninth, both starting pitchers were long gone. Linfield's Kendra Strahm lasted just two innings while Wheeler-Hoyt went five innings. Brittany Miller, Linfield's third pitcher, earned the win by allowing one run on five hits with seven strikeouts in six innings. Hadley Schmitt took the loss, giving up three runs on seven hits in four innings. Miller was the story in the opener, allowing only one hit - Caitlin Brown's seventh inning bunt single - while striking out 15.

WILLAMETTE DOUBLEHEADER NOTES: PLU left 12 runners on base in losing the opener to Willamette, 8-1, and then collected 13 hits in a 12-4 five-inning victory in the second contest as the teams split a conference doubleheader on Sunday. Nikki Franchi improved her season record to 13-2 by limiting the Lutes to one run on seven hits in the opener. Franchi did walk five batters, however, and escaped trouble on several occasions, including two times when PLU left the bases loaded. Caitlin Brown had a pair of singles to lead PLU’s offense in the opener. After Franchi hit a first-inning homer to give the visitors a 1-0 lead in the second game, the Lutes jumped all over Willamette starter Amy Valencia, scoring four times in the first inning, once in the second and four more in the third. Lisa Gilbert ripped a two-run double in the first and a Willamette error accounted for two more runs. In the second, Walling turned a line drive down the rightfield line into an inside-the-park home run. The Lutes made the score 9-2 with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Gilbert hit her second double of the game to drive in the first tally, and the second scored on a wild pitch. Vanessa Bryant and Brown both added run-scoring singles in the inning. The game ended on the eight-run rule when the Lutes scored three times in the bottom of the fifth inning. Walling and Brown reached on singles and Starke was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Rachel-Wheeler Hoyt knocked in two with a double. Stephanie Mullen ended the game with a single through the middle, scoring Starke. Walling had three hits while Brown, Wheeler-Hoyt and Bryant all had two hits for the Lutes. Wheeler-Hoyt improved her pitching record to 8-5, going all five innings and allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits.

- PLU -