March 31, 2007

Game 1 Stats | Game 2 Stats

CLEVELAND - Cleveland State and UW-Green Bay opened Horizon League play with a doubleheader on a cool, gray Saturday afternoon at Viking Field. The Vikings claimed game one, 7-1, on the strength of 11 hits before the Phoenix rebounded to claim the night cap, 3-2.

In the opener, the Vikings broke open a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning on a RBI double from sophomore Amanda Houchin and a run-scoring single by sophomore Christa Coppus. Junior Whitney Willard single-handedly made the score 3-0 in the fifth by beating out an infield single, stealing second and third base and coming in to score on a Houchin sacrifice fly.

CSU blew the game open with four runs in the sixth. Sophomore Tara Meyer scored two with a triple to right field, while sophomore Haley Keller and freshman Jessica Burt plated runs to close out the scoring.

Freshman Amanda Macenko allowed just five hits, walked none and fanned six to pick up her 13th victory of the season. She faced just one over the minimum through six innings before giving up a pair of doubles in the seventh inning en route to tossing her 10th complete game.

Willard jumpstarted the Viking offense with a pair of hits and three runs, while Burt, senior Sarah Milosek, and senior Michele Penney each added two hits.

Anna Bluemel (1-4) took the loss for the Phoenix, giving up eight hits and five runs in five innings.

Jenny Rehfeldt got UW-Green Bay going in game two, blasting a two-run home run off of Macenko in the top of the first.

The Vikings manufactured a pair of runs in the third inning to knot the score at 2-2. With runners on first and third and two outs, CSU executed a perfect double steal for the first run and Houchin followed with a RBI single to draw the Vikings even.

The Phoenix took advantage of a pair of CSU errors and a wild pitch in the top of the fifth to push across what proved to be the winning run.

The Vikings had their chances to tie the game or take the lead, but left the bases loaded in the sixth and then sophomore Danielle Young's bid for a home run in the bottom of the seventh was foul by just a few feet.

Katie Cooney (4-1) scattered five hits to earn the complete-game victory.

Macenko (13-3) took the loss after surrendering six hits and three runs (two earned) in five innings of work. Junior Christina Swierz tossed two scoreless innings of relief.

Houchin paced CSU with two hits.

"As well as we played in the first game, I was disappointed with our effort in game two," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We're struggling right now to put back-to-back complete efforts together. We need to quit popping the ball up and giving the other team easy outs."

The teams are slated play the rubber game of their weekend series on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.