April 17, 2010
Game 1 Stats
Game 2 Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Cleveland State reached 30 wins for the fifth straight season and the seventh time in school history and strengthened its hold on first place in the Horizon League by sweeping a doubleheader at Green Bay on Saturday afternoon.
CSU won the first game, 6-1, and won the nightcap in five innings, 11-0.
The two wins moved the Vikings to 30-10 overall and 10-1 in the Horizon League, while the Phoenix fell to 19-11 overall and 5-5 in league play.
Since losing the Horizon League opened to UIC on April 2, the Vikings have rattled off 10 consecutive league wins.
"I thought we played well in every aspect of the game today," head coach Angie Nicholson said. "The wind was blowing in all day, but we did a good job of sticking to our game plan and managed 24 hits in the two games. We continued to run the bases well and put the ball in play when we needed to.
"And we got two more outstanding performances from Amanda. She did a good job of moving the ball around and hitting her spots and we made some key defensive plays behind her."
CSU jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning in the opener when Dara Toman scored on sacrifice fly from Caila Ferro. Toman had ledoff the inning with a single.
Green Bay tied the score at 1-1 with a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly, but the Vikings erupted for five runs in the sixth which was more than enough for senior pitcher Amanda Macenko who surrendered just four hits with seven strikeouts to earn her 23rd win of the season.
Lia Gordon ledoff the sixth with a double and after a Toman strikeout, Gabby Gillilan delivered an RBI double to score Alicia Nichols who had pinch run for Gordon. Back-to-back Phoenix errors allowed Gillilan to come around and score to give CSU a 3-1 lead.
A Ferro single and Megan Bashak walk loaded the bases and Jessica Burt came through with an RBI single to make it 4-1. Tess Sito drew a bases loaded walk before a Kaitlyn Ciminelli sacrifice fly pushed Bashak across with the sixth run of the game.
Burt finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Gillilan went 2-for-2 with an RBI in the opener as CSU pounded out 10 hits.
"Jess did a great job of getting on base today and setting the table for us," Nicholson said. "As she goes, we go as a team."
The Vikings scored six runs in the first three innings of the nightcap and used another dominating performance by Macenko in the circle to complete the sweep.
The senior fired her 24th complete game and seventh shutout of the season, allowing no runs and fanning three to improve to 24-10. She is now one victory shy of becoming just the ninth player in Division I history to win at least 25 games in four different seasons.
CSU wasted little time in giving Macenko some run support in the nightcap as Burt led off the game with a triple and scored on a Sito single. Sito stole second and moved to third on a Ciminelli single before the duo executed a double steal with Sito swiping home.
It was one of her four stolen bases in game two, giving her 33 for the season to tie for third on the all-time single season list at CSU.
The Vikings extended the lead to 3-0 on a Burt RBI double in the second and used a two-run homer by Powell to highlight a three run third inning that gave CSU a 6-0 lead.
"Amy pounded the ball all day today, especially her homer," Nicholson said. "She had good swings in all of her at bats."
Ciminelli and Gillilan added RBI singles in the fourth and CSU took advantage of a Phoenix error to score two more runs, extending the lead to 10-0 after four innings. Gordon added a sacrifice fly in the fifth for the final run.
Burt went 3-for-4 with a pair of runs and an RBI in game two, while Ciminelli went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Sito scored a pair of runs to raise her season total to 38 and break the CSU single season record.
Eight of CSU's nine starters had at least one hit in the nightcap as the Vikings smashed out 14 hits.
The Vikings will conclude their three-game series at Green Bay with a single game on Sunday, April 18, beginning at 12:00 p.m. EST.
