March 19, 2010
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Freshman Caila Ferro celebrated her third career start by recording three hits and driving in a pair of runs, including the game-winner with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to complete a perfect 8-0 trip to the Rebel Games by the Vikings. CSU defeated Marist, 4-1, in the opener and Columbia, 4-3, in the nightcap on Friday.
The sweep gave CSU it's ninth win in a row, allowing the Vikings to improve to 18-7 on the season.
"Today wasn't our best effort of the trip, but it was good enough to get the job done," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "I think we are ready to get home and to practice so that we can work on the things that need some improvement.
"We've done some really good things on this trip and the team is coming together nicely. With so many young players in the lineup, I knew that it would be mid-season before we will be able to show the consistency that we had with such a veteran team last year.
"We are right on schedule right now. I don't think it is going to take us too much to get ready for our Horizon League opener," Nicholson added.
Tess Sito was the hitting standout in the first game, going one-for-four and driving three runners.
The Vikings scored all the runs they needed in the first when Jessica Burt led off with a single, stole second and scored on a Katelyn Ciminelli single to center.
CSU added two more runs in the third. With one out, Burt walked and Sito followed with a two-run homerun to center to extend the Viking lead to 3-0. It was the ninth homerun of the season for Sito, tying her with Christa Coppus (2009) for ninth on the CSU single season homerun list.
The Vikings added an insurance run in the fifth for good measure when Burt scored from third on a Sito RBI ground ball.
Amanda Macenko dominated in the circle in the first game, allowing just one earned run on three hits. She walked two and struck out six.
The Vikings jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first of the nightcap when with one out, Sito and Katelyn Ciminelli hit back-to-back doubles and Lia Gordon stroked an RBI single.
Columbia cut the lead to 2-1 in the third when it strung together three base hits and then took a 3-2 lead in the fourth on an Alison Yarn two run single.
The Vikings came back to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out double by Ferro that scored Mimi Mahon, who had walked.
With the game tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Gordon led off the inning with a walk and was run for by freshman Dara Toman. Toman went to second on a passed ball and to third on a Megan Bashak ground ball out. Ferro followed by stroking a single through the gap between third and short to allow Toman to score the game-winning run.
Macenko threw the complete game victory, allowing three runs on eight hits, striking out nine and walking just one. She is now 15-7 on the year, giving her a school-record 95 career victories at Cleveland State.
Sophomore Alicia Nichols had hits in both games to extend her hitting streak to nine games while Sito had three hits to move her hitting streak to five straight and 23 of her last 24.
The Vikings return to the Midwest and will be idle until playing a doubleheader in Moon Township, PA against Robert Morris on Thursday, March 25.
