Final Stats
Contact: Jeff Sattora
Cleveland- The Cleveland State Vikings continued their hot offensive performance Thursday, taking down the Detroit Titans 10-2 in five innings in Horizon league softball action. The win improved CSU to 15-18 on the year and 6-3 league play.
After pulling out an 8-7 extra inning thriller in game one of the three game series, CSU dominated the rest of the way, outscoring the Titans 19-2 in the final two games for the sweep.
Thursday the Titans got on the board first, pushing one run across to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Alyssa Schaub led off the game reaching on an error by CSU shortstop Janessa Rivera-Keahi. After being bunt over by Katelyn Steffel, Shaub advanced to score on a sacrifice fly by Kayla Kostich to center field.
Despite the early deficit the Vikings used three consecutive big innings to pull off the win, scoring three runs in both the second and third innings, and four runs in the fourth.
A throwing error by Detroit first baseman Sara Cupp led to the Vikings first run of the day to tie things up. Susan Knight then doubled in a run and Alyson Broschkhit a sac fly to give the Vikings a 3-1 lead.
With a 3-1 lead the rest of game two turned into the Erica McNewshow, as two home runs by the redshirt freshman accounted for six of the Vikings final seven runs.
McNew's first blast came in the third inning, bringing around Darien Ward (who walked to lead off the inning) and Dara Toman(who singled) to put the score at 6-1 CSU.
The fourth inning saw Cynthia Woodard chip in in the scoring column as she knocked an RBI double down the left field line to sandwich between McNew's homers. Woodard scored Darien Ward who reached on a throwing error by the third baseman. Dara Toman then followed Woodard's hit with a walk to put runners on first and second. With Woodard and Toman on base McNew did her final damage of the day, drilling out her Horizon League leading 14th homer of the year to make it a 10-2 final.
The hot offensive day was not a new thing for the catcher, as McNew currently leads the Vikings in batting average (.398), home runs (14) and runs batted in (30) in 2013.
On the mound Susan Knightpitched five strong innings, allowing seven hits and two runs (one earned) to improve her record to 9-7. She leads CSU in wins (9), innings pitched (119.2) and strikeouts (80) on the year.
Cleveland State will be back in action this weekend for a three game series at Viking Field vs. Loyola. The two teams will open with a doubleheader Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and close the series Sunday at noon.
