Feb. 11, 2011

Loyola Box

Texas A&M-CC Box

Contact: Brian McCann

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Tess Sito threw a three-hit shutout as Cleveland State split a pair of games on Friday, falling to Loyola, 7-4, before bouncing back to defeat host Texas A&M Corpus Christi, 3-0.

The victory allowed CSU to claim the top seed in Saturday's Championship round. The Vikings (2-1) will play Loyola (1-2) in the semi-final round at 12:00 noon on Saturday.

"We accomplished what we wanted to today," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We are the No. 1 seed for the championship round and that is what we wanted to do.

"We are playing pretty well right now, but we had one bad inning and that is on me because I knew that we needed to make a pitching change and I didn't make it and it came back to get us. We will learn from it.

"We are playing super heads up right now, both on the bases and defensively. We scored a couple of runs today because of some phenomenal base-running and our defense has been very sharp for being so early in the season."

Sito was impressive in the circle for the second straight day, allowing just two hits in seven innings of work, striking out three and walking two to improve to 2-0 on the year. She allowed no more than one baserunner in six of the seven innings.

"Tess is throwing as well as I have ever seen her," Nicholson said. "She has regained some velocity since last year and has been awesome in moving the ball inside and out and up and down."

The Islanders had their best opportunity to score in the second when Lauren Dodson led off with a walk and Brittany Tucker followed with a sacrifice bunt that was thrown wildly to first by Viking third baseman Gabby Gillilan to allow runners to move to first and second with no out.

Catcher Amy Powell took over from there, picking Dodson off second for the first out and then, after Cassie Redman struck out, Powell picked off Tucker at first base to end the inning.

"Amy brings so much to our lineup defensively and that inning was a great example of her ability to affect the outcome of games," Nicholson said. "Without her defense, they may well have gotten on the scoreboard first and if that had happened, the outcome of the game may have changed."

Sito got the CSU offense started in the fourth. After Alicia Nichols led off with a single, Sito lined a triple to right center to drive her in and then came in to score when the throw from right field was down the third baseline.

The Vikings added an insurance run in the fifth when Katelyn Ciminelli led off with a double to right center, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Megan Bashak and scored on a single by Jessica Burt.

"That is a perfect example of how our offense works," Nicholson said. "Ciminelli gets the hit to start the inning, we move her over with a perfect bunt and then drive her home."

The Vikings managed just four hits off a pair of Islander pitchers, but CSU made the most of them.

The Vikings appeared to be headed for a win in the opener against Loyola, opening up a 3-1 lead after five innings before the Ramblers rallied for six runs in the sixth inning to take control of the game.

After allowing a pair of baserunners with just one out in the first, starter Brandy Holmes cruised, retiring 11 straight Loyola batters to get through the fourth inning.

The Vikings supported Holmes, taking a 1-0 lead in the first when with runners at first and second, Alicia Nichols and Andrea Nagy executed a double steal with the throw down to third skipping into left field to allow Nichols to score.

CSU made it 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Dara Toman stroked a one-out double off the wall in left and Caila Ferro followed with an RBI single.

Loyola was able to get to Holmes in the fifth when Lauren Gonzalez walked to open the inning and was replaced by pinch runner Keali Engelkens. Engelkens was sacrificed to second and came around to score on a single by Tori Spears to make it a 2-1 game.

The Vikings got the run back in the bottom of the frame on an RBI single by Nagy that scored Burt.

Things fell apart in the top of the sixth as Loyola scored six runs on six hits off three Vikings pitchers to take a 7-3 lead, with two of the runs coming on a homerun by Lauren Moore that tied the game at 3-3.

"I wanted to take Brandy out after the fifth because I knew that she had done just about all that she could do, but I wanted to throw Tess for the last two innings but since she batted in that inning, she wasn't loose so I guess incorrectly that Brandy could get us through the sixth," Nicholson said.

CSU added a run on an RBI triple by Burt that scored Gabby Gillilan in the bottom of the sixth, but the Vikings could come no closer.

Sophomore Brittany Bate was the loser for CSU, allowing all three of the batters she faced to score without registering an out. Holmes went 5.1 innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits and Sito worked 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Burt was the offensive leader for the Vikings on Friday, going three-for-seven with a double, triple and a pair of RBI's to raise her season batting average to .500 (5-10).