SPOKANE, Wash. - After dropping a close opener by a final of
4-3, the Puget Sound Loggers were in the middle of a rally in the
top of the seventh before play with halted with two outs with the
Loggers leading 13-9 over the Whitworth Pirates in a Northwest
Conference softball doubleheader on Friday in Spokane, Wash.
In the opener, the Pirates opened up the scoring with three runs
in the bottom of the second. The Loggers got on the board in
the top of the third as Carolyn Moore (Seattle, Wash./Holy Names)
doubled to right field to score Katy Appleby (Westminster,
Colo./Standley Lake). The Pirates added another run in the
third as the Loggers were down 4-1.
Puget Sound got another run in the sixth as Aryn Grause
(Corvallis, Ore./Crescent Valley) grounded out, allowing Megan
Janes (Littleton, Colo./Arapahoe) to score from third. The
Loggers got within a run in the seventh as Alex Usher (Carson,
Wash./Stevenson) led the inning off with a solo home run but the
Pirates managed to get three outs as Whitworth took the 4-3 win.
Junior Auriel Sperberg (Spanaway, Wash./Graham-Kapowsin) took
the loss, despite striking out nine Whitworth batters in six
innings pitched.
In the second game, Whitworth again struck first on a two-run
home run in the bottom of the first but the Loggers quickly
answered back as Cassie Walny (University Place, Wash./Curtis) went
deep in the top of the second to even the game at 2-2. The
Loggers looked to blow the game open in the third as Usher hit her
second home run of the afternoon with a two-run bomb to left field
to cap a four-run inning as the Loggers took a 6-2 lead.
The Pirates took the game over in the fourth, exploding for
seven runs as Whitworth took a 9-6 lead. In the top of the
fifth, Anthea Aasen (Tacoma, Wash./Wilson) singled through the left
side to score Walny and then Grause drew a bases-loaded walk to
score Appleby as the Logger pulled within one run, 9-8.
Down one run with one inning left to play, the Loggers got the
bats going in the top of the seventh, going for five runs on three
hits as rain began to puddle on the Whitworth infield. The
umpires finally suspended the game with two outs left in the top of
the seventh
The Loggers and Pirates will try to resume the game at Noon on
Saturday before their regularly scheduled doubleheader.
