Final Stats

Stillwater, OK-The Cleveland State Vikings split their second straight day at the Oklahoma State Invitational, falling in their first game to the host Cowgirls, before picking up a win vs. the Northern Iowa Panthers in their afternoon contest.

Despite jumping out to an early lead, the Vikings were unable to hold on in that first game, falling in their third game of the Oklahoma State tournament this weekend, 4-2 to host Oklahoma State.

CSU got on the board early as following a Katelind Phillips walk, senior Dara Toman knocked out her third homer of the year in the top of the first inning, a two-run shot to give CSU that early lead.

Toman led the CSU charge offensively, as she also hit a fourth-inning double to go a perfect 2-2 in the game. Cynthia Woodard also picked up multiple hits going 2-3, and Alyson Broschk had one base hit to round out the CSU offense.

Although the Vikings were able to get out of the gates early, they were unable to hold on as the Cowgirls scored two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to take the win.

Head Coach Angie Nicholson continued to mention consistency being important and a critical factor in the tough game one.

"(Pitcher) Susan Knight did a great job with the OSU hitters today and we could not stay consistent at the plate to hold on to the win for her," she said.

Knight was strong for the Vikings in game one as she pitched all six innings in the loss, giving up just the four runs. 

Moving ahead to game two, CSU used a four-run first inning to take the lead, before eventually holding on to defeat Northern Iowa 5-4 Saturday afternoon. The win avenged a 6-2 loss CSU took to the Panthers on day one of the tournament Friday.

CSU used a balanced offensive attack against Northern Iowa, picking up nine hits (by eight different hitters) to get the win. Sophomore Nena Doran was the lone Viking with multiple hits in game two as she went 2-3 with two singles and two runs scored to lead the way.

Six of those nine hits came in the first inning, helping to put the four runs across the plate. Following a Cynthia Woodard single to lead things off, freshman Katelind Phillips got on base on a fielder's choice to get things going. Although Woodard was out on Phillips' hit, four straight singles by Erica McNew, Dara Toman, Alyson Broschk, and Doran pushed across three of the four runs. Following a fielder's choice on a Caila Ferro hit, Susan Knight got the inning's final hit to put the lead at 4-0.

Even with the lead early the game was far from over as Northern Iowa tacked on back to back two run innings in the fourth and fifth to tie things at four a piece.

CSU did not go down without a fight as a Janessa Rivera-Keahi single in the sixth scored Doran for the eventually game winning run.

Junior Sara Shields also made her presence felt in game two late, as she came in at that 4-4 tie to pitch the final two innings and pick up the win. Shields picked up four strikeouts while allowing just three hits in her two innings of work to earn her first win of 2013.

"It was nice to have Sara come in and finish strong for us," Nicholson said.

On the day Nicholson was happy with the way the team performed picking up the 1-1 split.

"Overall it was a good day," she said. "Hopefully we can bring the bats tomorrow and finish strong."

The Vikings will finish up the tournament tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. CT against an opponent TBD.