April 20, 2006

Game One Stats | Game Two Stats

ATHENS, Ohio - Cleveland State squeezed out a pair of 2-1 victories at Ohio on Thursday to move to 25-9 on the year while extending its winning streak to five games. Just as they did on Wednesday, senior pitchers Grace Luginbuhl and Kortney Spidell handcuffed the opposition and the Viking offense contributed just enough to pull out the wins.

CSU got to Bobcat starter Michelle Sauter in the top of the first inning of the opener, plating a run on a Christa Coppus double and a Michele Penney groundout. That would be it for the Viking offense, as Sauter (11-11) retired the final 20 batters of the game in order.

However, Luginbuhl was up to the task, allowing just an unearned run on six hits while striking out three to improve to 16-5 on the year. Ohio's biggest scoring threat came in the fourth, but Luginbuhl wriggled out of a bases loaded jam by inducing a pop fly.

Spidell turned in an even better effort in the night cap, allowing just three hits in eight innings of work. However, she found herself on the wrong end of a 1-0 score when the Bobcats (23-28) strung together all of their hits with two outs in the sixth.

Luginbuhl staved off defeat when she led off the seventh with a blast over the wall in left center.

Using the international tiebreaker rule in the eighth, J.J. Thornberry moved to third on a one-out wild pitch and came around to score when Sarah Milosek followed with a RBI single through the left side of the infield.

Spidell retired Ohio in order in the bottom of the inning to improve to 7-3 on the year.

Candace Warden fell to 6-8 despite surrendering just four hits and an earned run in eight innings of work.

Whitney Willard saw her team season-high 11-game hitting streak come to an end with an 0-for-3 effort at the plate. She was 17-for-34 (.500) during the run, which matched her career-best set last season.

"We just keep finding different ways to win by taking advantage of our opponents' mistakes, no matter how small," CSU head coach Julie Jones said. "Of course, our pitching was spectacular again. Today was good for us because we finished on an exciting note and kept our momentum going."

Cleveland State returns home this weekend to host Butler in a three-game Horizon League set at Viking Field. The teams will play a twin bill on Saturday (April 22) beginning at 1:00 p.m. followed by a single game the next afternoon at the same time.