The Trail

Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Sports

Senior pitcher Adrien Herlache winds up while her teammates get ready. The Loggers are currently tied with PLU for third place in the Northwest Conference standings.

Logger Softball swept their doubleheader against Saint Martin's, winning the first game 3-2 with an early lead. In the second game, UPS came from behind to defeat the Saints 5-4. The win is the fifth in a weeklong streak for the Logger ladies.

In the first game, junior Valarie Barone used a walk to bring in sophomore Kelli Ishii, giving the Loggers a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the fourth, Ishii hit a home run, pushing the lead to 3-0.

Senior Jessica Roberts, who earned the NWC pitcher of the week last week, pitched seven innings. She allowed two runs and struck out five Saints.

One of the weaknesses of Logger softball is their ability to bring in runners on base.

"We have left too many runners on base and that is something we are all working on," senior Lindsey Fujita said.

Senior Adrian Herlache agreed, "We still need some work on our offense. We left a lot of runners on base, and we need to figure out how to score those runs."

The second game really heated up, with the Saints firing up their offense.

The Loggers scored early with a home run by Fujita, giving UPS a 2-0 lead. But in the bottom of the first, the Saints scored three runs, giving them the lead.

In the final inning, the Saints had held on to their lead, 4-2.

UPS did a repeat of their game with Concordia and came back strong. Barone doubled to score Ishii, freshman Amelia Kurashige-Elliott tied things up and then Roberts singled to score Fujita.

Herlache pitched seven innings and allowed four hits. She was able to secure the win by forcing three ground outs in the bottom of the inning.

Both Herlache and Fujita agreed that they need to work on gaining the lead early, rather than coming from behind.

"We have a lot of talent offensively, we just need to figure out how to string our hits together and manufacture more runs. Winning by close games are exciting, but we need to get on top of other teams and score as many runs as we can as early as we can, so we don't have to worry about defending against a comeback," Herlache said.

Coach Robin Hamilton was extremely happy with the team's performance. She, like Herlache and Fujita, believes that the Loggers' strength lies in their defense.

"Our defense with Lindsay Fujita and Meghan Watson up the middle is as good as any in NCAA III," Hamilton said.

The Loggers host two conference games next week. They will play Willamette on Saturday and Pacific on Sunday.

• Nadine Leonard is an expert in nunchuck self defense.

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