Feb. 14, 2009
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
ATHENS, Ga. - The second day of the Red & Black Showcase had the Viking softball team splitting a pair of games, defeating Longwood, 5-3, in the first game before dropping a 8-0 decision in six innings to 20th-ranked Georgia.
The Vikings, who are now 2-1 in the tourney, improve to 3-5 while Georgia moved out to 5-1 and Longwood slipped to 0-2.
"We hit the ball pretty well today," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "Unfortunately, we hit the ball right at people and had several balls that were hit to the warning track. But that's okay. When we are aggressive at the plate, we are going to hit the ball well and put together a lot of scoring opportunities.
"The only thing we didn't do today was get the big inning. We would get things going and then just miss out on the big hit.
"Amanda (Macenko) was solid on the mound. She gave up a couple of little things in the first game and then struggled to find where the strike zone was at in the second game and let Georgia take the lead. Still, she settled down and threw a couple of strong middle innings until having a bad final frame."
In the morning game, CSU scored a pair of runs in the second when Natalie DeMatteis grounded to third with the bases loaded but the throw home was wild, allowing both Alicia Nichols and Mimi Mahon to score.
CSU made it 4-0 by scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth. In the fourth, DeMatteis singled to score Amanda Houchin, who had earlier doubled. The run in the fifth came when Lia Gordon hit her third homerun of the season to deep right center.
Longwood would rally in the bottom of the fifth, closing to within 4-2 on a two-run homerun by Nichole Simmons.
The Vikings came right back, adding its fifth run on an RBI single by Christ Coppus to score Megan Bashak.
Longwood closed the scoring in the bottom of the seventh as Emily Radford singled to score Camille Ketsdever with one out, but Amanda Macenko retired a pair of pinch hitters to close out the game.
Macenko struck out seven and walked one, allowing three earned runs on nine hits to improve to 3-3 on the year.
The Vikings fell behind early in the nightcap as Megan Wiggins stroked a two-run triple in the bottom of the first and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brianna Hesson.
The Bulldogs added a run in the third on a Ashley Pauley sacrifice fly.
Georgia erupted for four more runs in the sixth to invoke the tournament's eight-run rule and end the game an inning early. Taylor Schlopy led off with a homerun to left. Following an infield single by Kristin Schnake, Alisa Goler doubled to left to score one run and Wiggns ended the game with a two-run blast to right.
CSU could manage just two hits in the game, a Christa Coppus single in the fourth and a Natalie DeMatteis single in the sixth.
Christie Hamilton kept the hot-hitting Vikings at bay all afternoon, shutting out CSU on just two hits, striking out eight and walking one in six innings.
Macenko (3-4) went the distance for CSU, allowing eight earned runs on 11 hits and striking out four.
"I am happy with our performance so far at Georgia," Nicholson said. "We've hit the ball pretty well, played some strong defense and pitched well. This is a good sign as we get ready for our regular season."
The Vikings close out the tournament on Sunday, facing Winthrop starting at 12:00 noon.
