April 22, 2006

Game One Stats | Game Two Stats

CLEVELAND - Junior Michele Penney either drove in or scored nine of Cleveland State's 11 runs as the Vikings swept past Butler, 4-2 and 7-0, on a picture perfect Saturday afternoon at Viking Field. With the two wins, CSU improved to 27-9 overall and 8-4 in the Horizon League, while extending its winning streak to seven games.

Once again, the Vikings needed little offense in support of seniors Grace Luginbuhl and Kortney Spidell, who allowed just seven hits while walking none in 14 innings of work.

In the opener, Luginbuhl surrendered just five hits and a pair of seventh-inning runs while fanning eight to improve to 17-5 on the year. She saw her streak of not allowing an earned run come to an end at 26.2 innings as the Bulldogs strung together three consecutive two-out hits in their final at-bat.

CSU got on the board with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. With one out, Luginbuhl scored on an RBI ground out by Christa Coppus. Penney then tripled and came around to score on a single by J.J. Thornberry.

Penney then drove in a run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly before Shannon Graves closed out the scoring in the next inning with an RBI single.

Butler's Jamie Wonderly gave up nine hits -- two each to Luginbuhl and Sarah Milosek -- and four runs to fall to 5-11.

Spidell was almost unhittable in game two, allowing just two harmless singles as the Bulldogs failed to advance a runner past first base. She moves to 8-4 on the strength her fourth shutout of the season.

Penney provided all the offensive support Spidell would need, homering with one on in the second, plating a run with a single in the third and leading off the fifth with a blast to right field for her first career-multi homer game.

Thornberry and Spidell each went 2-for-3 as part of a 10-hit attack.

Meghan Howard took the loss to fall to 7-8.

"Today was a good day for us," CSU head coach Julie Jones said. "I thought our pitching was very good and our defense was outstanding. We're a lot of fun to watch when we're playing like this."

The teams conclude the series with a single game on Sunday (April 23) beginning at 1:00 p.m. at Viking Field.