April 7, 2010
Final Stats
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Katelyn Ciminelli drove in four runs, Megan Bashak knocked in three and Amanda Macenko threw a complete game win for her 99th victory as a Viking as Cleveland State routed Detroit, 13-2 in five innings, to complete the sweep of the three game series.
The Vikings, who improved to 24-8 overall and 5-1 in league play, have now won 15 of their last 16 games while Detroit (0-19, 0-9) has dropped 14 in a row.
"We just took care of business today and that is a good sign," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "In the past we have some times failed to hit the way that we are capable of when we have played a team that we should do well against. I thought we were aggressive at the plate and on the bases today and it showed in the results.
After Detroit had taken a 1-0 lead on a Erica Houthhoofd solo home run, the Vikings bounced back to tie the game in the bottom of the frame when Tess Sito had a two-out single, stole second and came into score on a single by Lia Gordon. The stolen base was Sito's team leading 27 of the season and 14th straight without being caught.
CSU made it 3-1 in the second when Jessica Burt singled with runners at first and second to drive in Amy Powell with Macall Sheppard coming in to score when the ball was misplayed by the Titan right fielder.
The Vikings added three more runs in the third.
Lia Gordon led off with a double and came around to score on a two run homer by Katelyn Ciminelli. Dara Toman followed with her eighth home run of the year, a blast to left center, to put CSU ahead, 6-1.
CSU blew the game open when it strung five hits together to score seven runs in the fourth.
Megan Bashak began the scoring by driving a double to left center to score Jessica Burt. After a walk to Sito, Gordon singled to center to load the bases. Ciminelli followed with a two-run double. After a Detroit pitching change, Dara Toman drove in Gordon on a ground ball to third and was safe when the third baseman couldn't come up with the ball for an error.
With the bases load later in the inning, Burt singled to left to drive in Toman and Bashak followed with a two-run single to center to finish the scoring.
Melissa Barrett added an RBI single in the top of the fifth to make the final 13-2.
Macenko, who allowed just one hit in 11 innings of work on Tuesday, was not as sharp but still managed to limit the Titans to two runs on four hits, striking out eight with just one walk to improve to 19-8 on the season.
The eight strikeouts gives Macenko 191 for the season and 883 for her career, leaving her 26 strikeouts shy of Amy Kyler's career record of 909 strikeouts set from 1993-97.
"Amanda wasn't at her best today, but you have to give her credit because she battled very hard to get the win. She wasn't going to let up at any point," Nicholson said.
Ciminelli was one of the CSU hitting stars for the day, going two-for-three with a run scored and four RBIS while Megan Bashak continued her recent hot streak by going two-for-four with a run scored and three RBI.
Sito, who went one-for-two with two runs scored, registered the 50th hit of her career. She also moved into seventh place on the season list with her 32nd run scored, leaving her five runs short of the school record of 37 set by Christa Coppus last year.
The Vikings remain at home over the weekend, hosting Wright State for a three-game series that starts with a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday (April 10) and a single game at 12:00 noon on Sunday (April 11).
