Feb. 24, 2007

Norfolk State Stats | Canisius Stats | Longwood Stats

FARMVILLE, Va. - The Angie Nicholson era got underway with a bang, as Cleveland State claimed the Longwood Spring Classic with a perfect 3-0 performance on Saturday. Originally scheduled as a two-day event, the tournament was shortened due to an approaching winter storm.

"Our young players really stepped up for us and our pitching exceeded my expectations," Nicholson said. "Our defense looked really good and we got some key hits at the right time.

"Our pitchers shut down a couple of good-hitting teams by doing a nice job of hitting their spots. The only run we gave up was because of a walk and a wild pitch."

The Vikings opened their season with a 9-0 whitewashing of Norfolk State (0-1) in five innings. Making her first career start, sophomore Tara Meyer held the Spartans to just a pair of hits to earn the victory.

CSU opened the scoring with four runs in the first inning, thanks in part to a walk, an error and a two-run triple by senior Sarah Milosek. The Vikings would then tack on two more in the second and a trio of runs in the third to close out the scoring.

Milosek finished with two hits and a pair of runs scored, while junior Whitney Willard went 2-for-3 and sophomore Danielle Young drove in a pair.

Leekycia Brown (0-1) took the loss for the Spartans, surrendering two hits and four runs (two earned) in an inning of work.

Game two was a much tighter affair, as Canisius (0-2) pushed across a run in the bottom of the third to break a scoreless tie. Sophomore Amanda Houchin knotted the score when she led off the top of the fifth with her first career home run.

The teams would remain deadlocked until the seventh inning, when freshman Lia Gordon led things off with her first career dinger. CSU would add an insurance run when sophomore Christa Coppus' two-out double scored Willard.

Freshman Amanda Macenko earned her first career victory with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief of junior starter Christina Swierz who surrendered three hits and a run in 4.1 innings of work.

Gordon and Willard paced the Vikings offense with a pair of hits each.

Mallory Aldred (0-1) took the loss after giving up two runs and four hits in two innings of relief of starter Lindsay Garbacz.

In the final game of the day, Macenko tossed a one-hitter as Cleveland State defeated Longwood (2-1), 3-0, to claim the tournament title. She struck out five and walked one while giving up just a clean infield single in the fourth inning to move to 2-0 on the year.

Coppus scored what would prove to be the winning run on a wild pitch in the top of the first. Houchin added her second home run of the day in the second inning and Coppus, who went 3-for-4, rounded out the scoring with an RBI single in the third.

Senior Michele Penney and Houchin both added two hits.

Ashley Forsyth gave up six hits and two earned runs in two innings of work to fall to 0-1.

Cleveland State is off for two weeks before heading to the Rebel Spring Games, where the Vikings will play 10 games from March 11-15 in Kissimmee, Fla.