Feb. 27, 2010
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Cleveland State hit four home runs, including a grand slam from Jessica Burt, and the Vikings pounded out 21 hits and scored 20 runs in a doubleheader sweep at the UNC-G Spartan Classic. CSU defeated UNC-Greensboro, 13-6, to conclude pool play undefeated, and then knocked off Niagara, 7-6, to advance to Sunday's title game.
CSU has now won four straight games to improve to 6-3 on the year.
"Today was a miserable day to play because it was, cloudy, cold and windy," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "But I have to give it to my team because they came ready to play and were very focused for most of the game.
"We continue to hit ball real hard. Even our outs were hit hard and right at people, but that is the way we are. We have so many freshmen in the lineup right now that we are going to just keep getting better and better as we continue to get more experience."
In the first game of the day, CSU had runs in three of the first four innings before exploding for eight runs in the sixth inning to turn a close game in to a rout.
Tess Sito got the ball rolling in the first when she hit a one-out homerun to left field, her league-leading sixth of the year, to put the Vikings ahead, 1-0.
Lia Gordon made it 2-0 in the third when she hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Sito, who ad walked and stolen second.
Andrea Nagy extended the Viking lead to 4-0 in the top of fourth when she stroked a one out home run to left field to score Megan Bashak.
UNC Greensboro came back, scoring one in the fourth and two in the fifth to close to within 4-3, but the Vikings put the contest away with eight in the sixth.
Gabby Gillilan and Lia Gordon got the inning started with RBI hits and Megan Bashak and Andrea Nagy followed two batters later with bases loaded walks to score runs, pushing the CSU lead to 8-3.
Jessica Burt put the game out of reach when she blasted her first home run of the season to right center field to give CSU a 12-3 lead.
Amanda Macenko was the starter and winning, throwing all seven innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits. She actually was taken out in the bottom of the sixth, but when Chelsea D'Ambrosia hit a three-run home run off reliever Brandy Holmes, Nicholson went back to Macenko, who finished off the win.
The win over UNC-Greensboro allowed CSU to finish the round robin portion of the tourney with a 3-0 record and advance to the championship bracket as the No. 1 seed, facing No. 4 Niagara in its second game of the day.
Playing as the home team, CSU jumped on the Purple Eagles for three runs in the first. Burt led off with a walk and Sito followed with a single. Gillian continued her strong tourney by stroking a single to right to score Burt. After Toman walked to load the bases, Katelyn Ciminelli lined an RBI single and the final run scored on a wild pitch.
Niagara got a run in the top of the second on a Jaclyn Russell double, but CSU got it right back when Burt and Sito registered back-to-back doubles in the second.
The Vikings took control of the game in the fifth when Toman hit a three-run home run down the left field line. Niagara pieced together four runs in the top of the sixth and a single run in the seventh to pull to within 7-6, but Macenko got the final two batters out on a strikeout and a ground ball to second to end the game.
Macenko went the distance, allowing five runs on six hits to improve to 5-3 on the year. It was the ongoing school record 85th win of her career.
The Vikings will close out the tournament on Sunday with a 1:00 p.m. contest against No. 2 seed Sacred Heart, who CSU defeated 1-0 on Friday to open the tournament.
