April 27, 2008

Lutes Send Noren Out With Sweep of Loggers

Carly Starke - ends game with home run

Game One
Game Two

PARKLAND - Carly Starke gave departing Pacific Lutheran softball head coach Rick Noren a present on Sunday afternoon, belting an eighth-inning home run over the leftfield fence to give the Lutes a Northwest Conference sweep of the visiting Puget Sound Loggers.

The Lutes(19-19 overall, 16-10 NWC) scored five runs in the first inning of the opener on the way to a 6-2 win before Starke's blast gave the hosts a 3-2 victory over the Loggers (11-23 overall, 7-16 NWC) in the season finale.

Starke's home run, her second of the season, led off the eighth inning and gave Noren his 402nd win in his final game as the Lutes' head coach. Noren announced earlier in the week that he is leaving Pacific Lutheran to become the athletic director at Life Christian Academy.

Pacific Lutheran had to battle from behind twice in the second game. The Loggers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning when Victoria Raeburn hit a single to drive in Meghan Watson. The Lutes tied it in the bottom of the frame Rachel Wheeler-Hoyt led off with a walk, which eventually led to pinch runner Sheila Reiten scoring on a two-out double by Beth Haahr.

Puget Sound took a 2-1 lead in the seventh when Noelle Vallecorsa, Kelli Ishii and Watson all hit singles, Watson's driving in Vallecorsa with the go-ahead run. PLU tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Stephanie Mullen walked and eventually scored on Caitlin Brown's sacrifice fly. That set up Starke's heroics in the bottom of the eighth.

Wheeler-Hoyt improved her pitching record to 11-5, allowing two runs on six hits while walking three and striking out four. Auriel Sperberg took the loss, giving up three runs on eight hits in seven innings.

In the opener, the Lutes exploded for five runs on six hits and a Puget Sound error in the first inning. Heather Walling and Brown led off with bunt hits, advanced on an error, and then both scored on Wheeler-Hoyt's double. Beth Haahr later added a run-scoring single and Vanessa Bryant finished the inning with a two-run double.

The Loggers scored a run in the second on two hits and a wild pitch and added another in the fourth on a bases-loaded walk before the Lutes finished the scoring with a run in the sixth on doubles by Mullen and Brown.

Hadley Schmitt improved her record to 8-13, allowing the two runs in eight hits in a complete-game effort. The loss went to Andy Doerflinger, who was pulled after allowing seven hits and five runs in two innings of work.

Seniors Heather Walling and Lisa Gilbert played their final games for the Lutes, Walling collecting three hits and Gilbert getting one in the doubleheader. Brown and Haahr also had three hits during the twinbill.

For the Loggers, Carolyn Moore, Raeburn and Ishii all had three hits in the doubleheader.

- PLU -