March 1, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
RICHMOND, Ky. - Christa Coppus and Whitney Willard combined for six hits and seven RBI as the Vikings improved to 5-0 on the year, routing Appalachian State, 12-2, in the opening game of the Eastern Kentucky Invitational.
"We played pretty well today, but could have done a much better job at the plate," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We scored in bunches, which is good, but I think we let them stay in the game too long. We'll need to improve on that.
"The weather wasn't ideal and the field was soft, but we stayed focused and trudged along."
The Vikings were led by their leadoff duo of Willard and Coppus. Willard went two-for-five with three RBI while Coppus, who was an uncharacteristic 0-10 in the first four game, went four-for-five with four RBI.
"We are going to count on those two to get our offense going this year," Nicholson said. "They were very productive today and did a great job of getting things started."
Playing as the visiting team, the Vikings jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second on RBI singles from Danielle Young and Willard and a two-run single from Coppus.
Appalachian State rallied for two runs in the bottom of the second when Meagan Squartino hit a two-run home to left to Mountaineers to close to within 4-2. Only one of the two runs were earned as Morgan Price led off the inning by being safe on an error.
Haley Keller got one of the two runs back for the Vikings, leading off the third inning with a massive homerun to centerfield. It was her second home of the year.
Macenko settled down after that, limiting the Mountaineers to just four hits in six innings to improve to 4-0 with a 0.27 ERA this season.
The Vikings blew the game wide open in the top of the seventh, scoring seven times on just four hits. Amanda Houchin started the RBI parade with a double in the gap that scored Haley Keller. Young quickly followed with a single to score Andrea Nagy, who had walked, and Jessica Burt drew a bases-loaded walk to score Houchin.
After CSU loaded the bases and Willard and Coppus followed with two RBI singles to blow the game wide open.
Freshman Brittany Bate relieved Macenko to make her first appearance as a Viking and pitched a scoreless seventh inning despite allowing three hits.
Rain and wet grounds have plagued the tournament, causing the schedule to be adjusted several times. Instead of each team playing four games in two days, the tourney has been shortened to a single round robin format.
The Vikings resume tournament play on Sunday morning (March 2) by playing Dayton at 9:30 and host Eastern Kentucky at 11:30 a.m.
