March 14, 2009
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
DAYTON, Ohio - Cleveland State lived by the long ball on Saturday, getting home runs from Danielle Young and Amanda Houchin late in each contest to sweep Dayton, 3-2 and 7-5, on Saturday at UD Stadium.
The wins improved CSU to 8-8 overall while Dayton slips to 2-15.
"Boy am I proud of my team today," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We had a great day. We hit the ball hard, played some strong defense and ran the bases well."
With Horizon League Pitcher of the Year Amanda Macenko unable to make the trip because of illness, Nicholson turned to sophomores Brittany Bate and Kala Allred to start in the circle.
"I am so pleased by the way our pitching responded to the challenge. Both Brittany and Kala pitched tough enough to give us a chance to win. There were times when each of them could have folded, but they showed how far they have come by staying mentally sharp and pitching through the problems," Nicholson added.
The Vikings had just four hits in the first game, but they made them count.
Young keyed a rally from a 2-1 deficit when she hit her first home run of the season with one out in the top of the fifth to score Megan Bashak and give the Vikings a 3-2 lead.
The Vikings scored their first run in the third when Bashak doubled off he wall in left center to score Natalie DeMatteis, who had singled.
Brittany Bate was solid in the circle for CSU, throwing the complete game to improve to 1-2 on the year. Bate allowed two earned runs on six hits in seven innings, striking out five and walking two.
Dayton had chances to tie the game in both the fifth and sixth, but the Viking defense made big plays to close the door.
With nobody out and a runner at first in the fifth, Katie Jordan layed down a sacrifice bunt to move Molly Meyer to second. But Meyer got greedy and triedto take third on the play but CSU shortstop Natalie DeMatteis covered third and took a throw from Christa Coppus to get Meyer in a rundown. She threw back to Young, who had come in to cover second from center field on the play, and then received the throw back and slapped the tag on Meyer to end the threat.
Anne Maci singled to lead off the sixth and went to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a ground ball. The threat ended there as pinch-hitter Allie Falk popped out to center.
The nightcap saw the Vikings trail 3-0 after three as Dayton scored one in the second and twice in the third. CSU would rally to score one run in each of the next three innings to knot the score at 3-3.
Haley Keller hit a two-out bases-loaded single to score Andrea Nagy in the fourth.
In the fifth, Lia Gordon crushed her fifth homerun of the season to centerfield.
In the sixth, DeMatteis stroked a one-out double to left and scored on the back end of a double steal with Bashak.
The fireworks came in the seventh when with one out, Gordon and Katelyn Ciminelli singled. Alicia Nichols pinch ran for Gordon and the duo advanced to second and third on a double steal. Dayton elected walk Mimi Mahon to load the bases and Houchin made them pay for the decision, crushing her third home run of the season to centerfield to put the Vikings ahead, 7-3.
Dayton rallied in the bottom of the frame, scoring a pair of runs and having the potential game-tying run at second before Kala Allred completed the victory by getting Megan Lee to ground out to end the game.
Allred was strong in the circle, allowing five runs on 10 hits and striking out five to improve to 2-0 on the year.
DeMatteis and Bashak each pounded out three hits in the doubleheader for CSU and the Vikings had five extra base hits.
CSU is idle until traveling to Marshall on Thursday (March 19) for a doubleheader with the Thundering Herd.
