April 23, 2006

Final Stats

CLEVELAND - Senior Grace Luginbuhl nearly tossed her first no-hitter and classmate Kaitlin Guyette drove in a pair of runs as Cleveland State completed a three-game sweep of Butler with a 4-0 victory on Sunday afternoon to improve to 10-1 at Viking Field. The win was the eighth in a row for the Vikings, who are now 28-9 overall and 9-4 in the Horizon League.

With the victory, CSU climbed to within half-a-game of league-leading UIC (10-4), who dropped a 3-2 decision to UW-Green Bay this afternoon.

Luginbuhl struck out five and didn't walk a batter en route to hurling her sixth shutout of the season and the 13th of her career. She won for the eighth time in her last nine decisions to improve to 18-5. The Bulldogs' (15-24-1, 2-12 HL) only hit came when Lindsay Schluge singled cleanly up the middle on an 0-2 pitch with one out in the sixth inning.

The Vikings jumped on top with a pair of runs in their first at-bat, as Guyette's two-out, bases loaded single to right field scored Luginbuhl and freshman Christa Coppus. The Vikings tacked on two more two-out runs in the fourth and fifth innings, courtesy of a Whitney Willard triple and a J.J. Thornberry single, respectively.

"Grace didn't necessarily have her absolute best stuff today, but she got ahead of hitters and the defense made some nice plays behind her," CSU head coach Julie Jones said. "There are still some little things that we can improve on, but I like the consistency we're showing right now."

Cleveland State will put its winning streak on the line on Tuesday (April 25) at Youngstown State, as the teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 4:00 p.m. in Canfield.