By Rocky McNeff /// Sports Editor
The Lewis & Clark softball team teased the Puget Sound Loggers when they let them win the first game. The Pioneers took the next three games with such force that no one saw it coming—especially their opponents. Although the first game continued for nine innings, the Pioneers could not find it in themselves to bring in the win. However, in the next three games, the team scored 8 runs in each game and only let in three runs in three games from the Loggers.
Something changed in the mindset of the Pioneers that was the same mindset which led to the defeat of Linfield the weekend before. From the dugout to the outfielders, LC pursued a winning mindset which is proven by the weekend’s statistics. Madison Hollenbeck (’15), Jill Pinder (’16), and Kalin Rooney (’17) pitched throughout the four games and all contributed to the landslide wins over UPS. Hollenbeck and Rooney each ended the weekend with 7 strikeouts, a shocking number that the Loggers couldn’t reduce.
But pitching was only part of the equation that stopped the Loggers from scoring. The LC hitters were the weapons that allowed for such an enormous win over UPS. Ateisha Norton (’18) led the team with seven hits, Ashley Bolick (’17) and Hollenbeck totaled six hits for the weekend, and Hannah Dal Pra (’17) and Amanda Rabith (’15) had five. The team racked up many hits throughout all of the four games and produced a multitude of opportunities to score. In the third game against Puget Sound, Jenai Rojo (’17) hit a homerun that helped bring the lead up to 8-2 in favor of the Pioneers.
The Pioneers play George Fox University next weekend, also celebrating their five seniors. “It is an interesting year for our conference because there’s no dominant team,” Pinder is optimistic about her team’s season not only because of the unpredictability of the Northwest Conference, but because “we are a unified team this year and we’re not just individuals.”
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