April 24, 2008

SOFTBALL: PLU Finishes Season With Four Games Against UPS

COMING UP: Pacific Lutheran (15-19 overall, 12-10 NWC) at Puget Sound (11-19 overall, 7-12 NWC), Saturday, noon; Puget Sound at PLU, Sunday, noon.

LUTES CLOSE AGAINST LOGGERS: Pacific Lutheran closes its 2008 season this weekend with four Northwest Conference games against the rival Puget Sound Loggers. The teams will play a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday at the UPS field, and then come across town to Parkland for two games that will start at noon on Sunday.

ABOUT THE LOGGERS: The Loggers come into the game with a three-game winning streak, but prior to that they had lost eight straight, including six in Northwest Conference play. Hilary Rice is the team’s leading hitter with a .373 average, and she has been successful on all eight of her stolen base attempts. Other top hitters include Meghan Watson (.293), Lindsay Fujita (.280, 3 homers, 19 RBI) and Victoria Raeburn (.242, 4 homers, 17 RBI. The Loggers are hitting .265 as a team while opponents are hitting .305 against their pitching staff. Andi Doerflinger has a 3-6 record and a 2.88 earned run average, while Auriel Sperberg is 6-7 with a 4.48 earned run average.

NO OPPONENT, NO CONTESTS: Pacific Lutheran was scheduled to host the George Fox Bruins in a Northwest Conference doubleheader last Saturday. The games were canceled, however, because a rash of injuries has reduced the Bruins’ roster to seven players, including fill-in player Jordan Westering from the women’s basketball team. Westering, by the way, is the daughter of PLU football head coach Scott Westering. NCAA rules specify that the games be considered “no contest,” and as a result forfeits were not given. The games simply disappear from the schedule, and neither team’s record is affected.

LUTE NOTES: Like the Loggers, the Lutes enter the weekend series with three straight wins. Heather Walling leads the PLU regulars with a .369 batting average, and she has added three triples, a home run and 11 stolen bases. Caitlin Brown is hitting .368 this season, followed by Lisa Gilbert (.342, 15 RBI), Rachel Wheeler-Hoyt (.341, 12 doubles, 22 RBI), Stephanie Muller (.326), Vanessa Bryant (.324, 3 homers) and Carly Starke (.314, 10 doubles). The Lutes are hitting .310 as a team, while their opponents are hitting at a .271 clip. Wheeler-Hoyt has compiled a 9-5 pitching record and a 3.50 earned run average, while Hadley Schmitt is 6-13 with a 3.62 earned run average.

SHELBY POWERS UP: Shelby Johnston has spent most of the season as a pinch runner after a pitched ball broke her arm early in fifth game of the season against Saint Martin’s. Johnston, a sophomore, has had just 18 plate appearances this season, but last Sunday she came back in a big way with a pair of homers and six RBI in two wins against Lewis & Clark. The Lutes hope for a continuation of that power from Johnston during the remaining series, and into her junior and senior seasons.

LAST WEEKEND: Shelby Johnston hit a home run in each game and Pacific Lutheran collected 34 total hits in sweeping a Northwest Conference doubleheader from visiting Lewis & Clark, 9-3 and 16-0, on Sunday afternoon. The second game was shortened to five innings because of the eight-run rule. Johnston knocked a pinch hit two-run homer in the first game and slugged a long three-run blast in the second contest for her first two homers of the season. The Lutes knocked the softball all over the field on Sunday, hitting .523 in the two games by going 34-for-65 with five doubles, one triple and Johnston’s two homers. Heather Walling had six hits in seven at-bats and Lisa Gilbert collected five hits in seven at-bats to lead the Lutes. Carly Starke collected four hits in the twinbill and Crystal Reno, Rachel Wheeler-Hoyt, Vanessa Bryant, Caitlin Brown and Johnston all had three hits. In addition, Johnston drove in six runs in the two games. In the opener, the Lutes broke open a close 2-1 game with four runs in the third inning, and Johnston finished the scoring with her two-run blast in the sixth. PLU collected 15 hits in the game in support of winning pitcher Hadley Schmitt, but the defense was shaky with six errors. In the second game, PLU scored one in the second inning and three in the third before putting 12 runs on the board in the fourth inning. Johnston hit her majestic blast over the right field fence three batters into the big inning to get the Lutes going. Rachel Wheeler-Hoyt improved her pitching record to 9-5 by limiting the Pioneers to three singles, and she aided her cause in the game by collecting three hits, three runs batted in and scoring three runs.

LUTES ON KCCR: Pacific Lutheran’s final two home softball games will be broadcast on PLU’s online student station, KCCR (http://www.plu.edu/~kccr), with Bobby Pimentel and Tyler Scott handling the play-by-play.

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