Story by Vince Ghiringhelli, UPS Sports Info

TACOMA, Wash. – Just a week after surrendering over forty runs through two double-headers, the Puget Loggers took to their home diamond and gave up just one run in two games to beat the Lewis and Clark Pioneers 2-0 in the opener and 9-1 in the nightcap of a Northwest Conference softball doubleheader on Saturday in Tacoma, Wash.

Logger ace Auriel Sperberg (Spanaway, Wash./Graham Kapowsin) delivered her best performance of the season  to pick up the win in the first game, giving up only two hits while adding nine strikeouts to her NWC-leading total.

Sophomore Cassie Walny (University Place, Wash./Curtis) and junior Alex Usher (Carson, Wash./Stevenson) both had two hits on the day for the Loggers, while sophomore Anthea Aasen (Tacoma, Wash./Wilson) and freshman Katy Appleby (Westminister, Colo./Standley Lake) each had an RBI in what was just the second home win of the year for Puget Sound.

In the second game, Lewis and Clark came out looking to do some early damage as JT Mullins scored the game’s first run in the top of the first inning on a DeVincenzi single. Though the Pios looked sharp to begin, the Logger bats were too hot to handle and Puget Sound scored the next nine runs to end the game in the bottom of the fifth.

Puget Sound got 10 hits en route to three runs in the first, third and fifth inning. Walny added two RBI’s on one hit to her total for the day, while junior Carolyn Moore (Seattle, Wash./Holy Names) was 2-3 with two RBI’s of her own. Sophomore Aryn Grause (Corvallis, Ore./Crescent Valley) had a hit and an RBI as well as picking up the win in the pitching circle.

Grause had three strikeouts and only gave up two hits on the day as the Loggers put the eight-run mercy rule on a team for the first time in 2010.

The Loggers continue their homestand tomorrow with a twinbill against George Fox. The first pitch is set to be thrown at noon in the opener and at 2 p.m. for the second game.