March 15, 2006

Maine Stats | Bucknell Stats

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - Cleveland State earned a split for the second straight day at the Rebel Games, defeating Bucknell, 8-5, after falling 2-1 to Maine earlier in the afternoon. The Vikings are now 9-3 on the year heading into their final day at the tournament.

In the day's first game against Maine, CSU struck in the first inning for the ninth time in 11 contests. Whitney Willard led off with an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. After stealing third, Willard came in to score on a groundout by Christa Coppus.

The Black Bears knotted the score in the top of the fourth on a pair of walks and a two-out RBI single from Sarah Bennis. Maine then pushed across another two-out run in the sixth, this time courtesy of an RBI single from Courtney Gingrich.

Bennis made the two runs stand up, scattering four hits as the Vikings managed put just one ball out of the infield the entire game.

Grace Luginbuhl (4-2) was the hard-luck loser, giving up a pair of runs on four hits while striking out eight.

In the night cap, the Vikings exploded for eight runs on a season-high 12 hits while taking advantage of five Bison errors to plate six unearned runs. CSU plated two runs in the second inning, three in the third and two more in the sixth to take control of the game. Bucknell tried to make things interesting in the bottom of the seventh when Lauren Wible launched a three-run home run to cut the deficit to 8-5.

However, Luginbuhl came in and recorded the final out to pick up her first save. J.J. Thornberry gave up eight hits and five runs in 6.2 innings to earn the win in her first appearance of the year.

Kaitlin Guyette matched her career-high with three hits while driving in a pair of runs. Willard, Thornberry, Shannon Graves and Sarah Milosek each collected two hits.

Christie Wiest took the loss for the Bison, allowing nine hits and one earned run in 6.0 innings of work.

"It was nice to see us finally snap out of our offensive funk in the second game," CSU head coach Julie Jones said. "This was exactly the kind of game we needed and it was big of J.J. to step up and get the win in her first appearance of the year. Hopefully this will be the spark we were looking for."

Cleveland State closes out its five-day stint at the Rebel Games on Thursday (March 16) when the Vikings battle George Washington at 2:20 p.m. followed by a 6:00 p.m. contest with Saint Louis.