March 7, 2004

Box Score

HUNTONGTON, W.Va. - Cleveland State dropped a pair of games on the final day of the Ramada Marshall Softball Spring Classic. The Vikings fell to Eastern Michigan, 5-2, in the morning, before losing to Pittsburgh by the same score in the afternoon. CSU finished fourth in its season-opening tournament with a record of 0-6.

Against the Eagles, junior catcher Jackie Cornelius (Cincinnati, Ohio/Oak Hills) put the Vikings on top in the third inning with a solo home run. Senior outfielder Michelle Beightol (Akron, Ohio/Springfield) followed with a double and was driven in two batters later by sophomore shortstop Jessica Townsend (Hudson, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit). The lead would be short-lived however, as EMU answered with three in the bottom of the inning and two more in the fourth.

Junior Kortney Spidell (Strasburg, Ohio/Strasburg-Franklin) took the loss in 2.2 innings of work to fall to 0-2.

The second game followed much the same script, as Beightol drove in single runs in both the third and fifth innings to stake CSU to a 2-0 lead. However, the Panthers plated three runs in the bottom of the fifth and then tacked on two more in the sixth. Sophomore outfielder Shannon Graves (Medina, Ohio/Medina) went 2-for-3 with two runs scored, while Beightol finished with three hits in four at-bats to improve to 8-for-17 on the season (.471).

Sophomore J.J. Thornberry (New Bloomington, Ohio/Elgin) gave up three runs in 4.1 innings to drop to 0-3.

"There's no joy in being 0-6, be we really showed signs of improvement on Sunday," head coach Julie Jones noted. "I think it's important that we get our pitching turned around heading into our next tournament."

Cleveland State is in action again when the Vikings head to Orlando, Fla. to take part in the Rebel Spring Games. CSU will play a total of 12 games from Mar. 13-19.