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In the game of softball, good pitching will take you a long ways, and for Pella, they had that again this season with Mandy Demeulenaere. Demeulenaere, who just completed her junior season, has been pitching varsity since she was in eighth grade and steadily improves each season. This season Demeulenaere was one of the top pitchers in the LHC. In 25 appearences she threw a total of 171.33 innings, and recroded 121 strikeouts compared to just 38 walks. She only allowed 29 earned runs which gave her an E.R.A. of just 1.18 and opponents batted just .189 against her which was the second lowest in the LHC. Pella coach Krista Demeulenaere says with their much improved defense behind Mandy this year, it helped her to relax more in the circle and she knew she didn’t necessarily have to strike out every batter because she could depend on her team’s defense to back her up when needed. Pella finished the season 20-10 overall and 11-3 in the LHC which earned them the co-LHC championship with Pella Christian. The lose just one senior from this years team, catcher Whitney Pavlat.