The Lady Loggers closed out their 2011 campaign against cross town rival Pacific Lutheran. Though the team did not come out on the winning side of their matchups, they battled every game against a tough second place PLU squad.
On Saturday, the Loggers travelled to Parkland, Wash. for two games against rival PLU. The Lutes’ bats were hot as they rallied to an 8-0 victory in five innings, while the Loggers’ bats stayed a bit cold, getting only one hit on the game. The lone Logger hit on the day was a single from Christina Demuelenaere (Lake Stevens, Wash.).
In the second game of the day, the Loggers’ bats picked up a bit, tallying seven base hits and two runs, both driven in by junior catcher Chrissy Atterson (Marysville, Wash.). The two runs were not enough to top the run-producing Lutes, however, and the Lady Loggers suffered an 8-2 loss on the second game of the day.
On Sunday, the Loggers returned home to celebrate their seniors in their final games of the season. The Lutes jumped out early, putting up five runs in the second inning, part of the eight total runs in the first three innings. Down 9-1 in the fifth inning, the Loggers’ bats exploded for four runs. Megan Janes (Littleton, Colo.), who had already scored a run off the bat of Demuelenaere, scored once again off her bat to cut the deficit to 9-2. With Carolyn Moore (Seattle, Wash.) and Demuelenaere on base, junior Aryn Grause (Corvallis, Ore.) belted a three-run home run over the right-center wall to make the score 9-5. The Loggers put up one more run in the sixth, but were unable to combat the explosive Lute bats, and they ended with a 13-6 loss.
The fourth game of the weekend didn’t slow down the PLU bats, and they tacked on eight more runs to their weekend total. Demuelenaere, who hit .461 on the weekend, drove in all three Logger runs, but it wasn’t enough as the Loggers fell 8-3.
On the weekend, senior Auriel Sperberg (Spanaway, Wash.) eclipsed the 100 strikeout benchmark, giving her a conference best 107 on the season and over 400 on her career. Sperberg has been a great asset to the Loggers’ pitching staff in her four years here. She ranked eighth in the conference with a 4.14 ERA and picked up six of the Loggers’ 11 victories on the season.
When asked about how senior day went for her and the rest of the graduating class, Sperberg stated that it “was tough, especially when [I] walked off the field in the 7th inning realizing that that had probably been the last pitch [I] would throw in a logger uniform,” adding that she “was blessed with amazing coaches and teammates and could not ask for a better group of young women to share my collegiate softball experience with. They are all truly remarkable and made [my] experiences as a Logger athlete unforgettable.”
Though their season did not pan out as well as they would have hoped in the win/loss columns, it cannot be denied that they made great strides as a team and as a program. The four graduating seniors, Auriel Sperberg, Christina Demuelenaere, Carolyn Moore and Alex Usher (Carson, Wash.), have finished their great careers as Loggers, but all they have done for the program has yet to be seen.
[PHOTO COURTESY / HOLLY HARTMAN]