April 14, 2007

Game One Stats | Game Two Stats

CLEVELAND - Playing at home for the first time in two weeks, Cleveland State (19-8, 2-4 HL) had to watch as visiting Wright State (16-19, 3-4 HL) pulled out a pair of victories in their final at-bat to sweep a doubleheader on a cold, blustery day at Viking Field. The Raiders plated a trio of unearned runs to win game one, 8-5, before claiming the night cap, 4-3, with a single run in the seventh.

In the opener, the Vikings broke open a 2-2 tie with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. Senior Sarah Milosek plated a run with an infield single and junior Whitney Willard came in to score on an error.

The lead was short-lived however, as Jamie Perkins followed with a three-run home run in the top of the sixth to put WSU back on top, 5-4.

An RBI double from freshman Jessica Burt knotted the score again in the bottom of the sixth, but the Raiders too advantage of four CSU errors in the top of the seventh to push across three unearned runs.

Perkins, who finished 3-for-4 at the plate with a pair of home runs and five RBI, also earned the win in the circle to improve to 7-11. She gave up 10 hits and three earned runs in the complete game effort.

Freshman Amanda Macenko surrendered 11 hits and four earned runs in 6.1 innings of work to fall to 15-5.

Willard went 3-for-3 at the plate with three runs scored, while sophomore Amanda Houchin drove in a pair for the Vikings.

Jherica Williams and Allison Cox both added three hits for WSU.

Wright State opened the scoring in game two with a pair of runs in the top of the third. CSU immediately answered back in its half of the inning with RBI singles from Burt and sophomore Christa Coppus.

The scored would remain tied at 2-2 until the sixth, when the Raiders went ahead on a solo homer by Jacqueline Macy.

Once again, the Vikings had a quick answer, as Coppus singled, moved to second on a sacrifice and scored two batters later on a single by senior Michele Penney.

In the seventh, the Raiders parlayed a leadoff walk to Kristen Bradshaw into what would prove to be the winning run.

Allison Cox (9-8) gave up eight hits and three runs to earn the win for WSU.

Christina Swierz (2-2) took the loss for CSU, giving up nine hits and four runs in the complete game effort.

"Today was pretty disappointed," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We made entirely too many errors and continued to struggle getting hits with runners in scoring position. I thought our energy level was great today, we just couldn't get a hit when we needed it."

The teams will attempt to play the final game of the series on Sunday at 1:00 p.m., although snow, sleet and rain are in the forecast. Stay tuned to CSUVikings.com for updates.