March 14, 2007

IUPUI Stats | Colgate Stats

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - On a day when pitching dominated, Cleveland State earned a split of its two contests at the Rebel Spring Games. The Vikings fell, 1-0, to IUPUI before turning the tables in a 1-0 win against Colgate. With one day left in Florida, CSU now stands at 9-2 on the year, matching the 1997 squad for the best start in school history.

Amanda Macenko helped the Vikings to a split on the day, handcuffing Colgate to improve to 6-1 on the season. She allowed just three hits while fanning seven en route to tossing her second shutout and fourth complete game.

Sarah Milosek scored the lone run of the game on the back end of a double-steal in the top of the fourth inning. Whitney Willard led CSU with a pair of hits to extend her hitting streak to 11 games. Dating back to last season, she now has at least one hit in 22 of the last 23 contests.

Kelsey Nordstrom (4-1) took the loss for the Raiders, scattering eight hits while striking out six in the complete game effort.

Colgate's only real threat came in the fourth inning, when it put runners first and third with one out. However, the Raiders popped into a double play on an attempted squeeze bunt to end the threat.

In the day's first game, IUPUI strung together four straight soft singles in the top of the sixth to push across the only run.

The Vikings threatened in their half of the sixth, putting runners on second and third with only one out. Christa Coppus appeared to put CSU ahead, but her line drive down the left field line was ruled foul by just inches.

However, Breanna Howell managed to wriggle out of the jam by inducing a pair of groundouts. She scattered seven hits over seven innings to pick up the win.

Meanwhile, Tara Meyer was the hard-luck loser, giving up just six hits in 5.1 innings of work to fall to 2-1.

Milosek paced the Vikings with a pair of hits, while Amanda Houchin saw her career-best eight-game hitting streak come to an end with a 0-for-3 performance.

"Our hitters are in a little bit of a slump right now - we're leaving too many people on base," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "On the flip side, our pitching carried us today. Tara threw a lot of strikes and Amanda really showed a lot of poise in some tight situations."

Cleveland State closes out its stint at the Rebel Spring Games with a pair of contests on Thursday. The Vikings will face Yale at 1:00 p.m., followed by a 5:00 p.m. tilt with Columbia.