Final Stats

Contact: Jeff Sattora

Cleveland- The Cleveland State Vikings' softball team (14-18, 5-3) used a high-powered offensive attack to ignite a late game one win and dominating game two win Wednesday, defeating Detroit (4-34, 1-10) in a midweek Horizon League doubleheader. CSU took game one 8-7 in extra-inning comeback fashion, while winning game two 9-0 in five innings.

Cleveland State, who fell behind 1-0 in the second and 3-1 in the third inning, trailed all game long until winning it in the eighth in that first game.

Nena Doran (who led off the inning with a double) scored on an Alyson Broschk groundout in the second inning to get the Vikings on the board. After Detroit responded with a run in the fourth making the score 4-1, Dara Tomandoubled in two runs in the fifth inning to make a 4-3 Detroit lead.

Detroit tacked on another run in the sixth inning on one hit and two Cleveland State errors pushing the lead to 5-3. With the Vikings not scoring in the bottom of the sixth and the first two batters in the bottom of the seventh not reaching base, things looked bleak with a two run deficit and one out remaining for the home team. Despite that outlook, that is exactly when the CSU offense got rolling.

Erica McNew started the rally reaching on an error by the right fielder. She was followed by Nena Doran and Caila Ferroproducing back-to-back singles to push McNew across and put runners on first and second with two-outs in a 5-4 game. Broschk then completed the comeback with a single of her own up the middle to score Doran and tie the game at five all.

With all the momentum in Cleveland State's favor it looked like Detroit may not have another push in them, but they proved that wrong as the Titans responded with two runs on two hits, including a single up the middle by Sara Cupp, to jump back into a 7-5 lead in the top of the eighth.

Facing another deficit Cleveland State was determined to complete the comeback for the home fans,. After Darien Ward singled andCynthia Woodardreached on a fielder's choice, Toman delivered the dagger, drilling a three-run walk-off home run to right center field to bring home the win.

That late game offensive explosion was only a sign of things to come for the Vikings, as they continued to blitz the Titans, running away with game two by a 9-0 final in five innings.

Woodard and Toman got things going in the nightcap with back-to-back home runs in the first inning for CSU and the Vikings never looked back. Toman's homer, her second of the day and the 52nd of her incredible Cleveland State career, tied her for first all-time on the Horizon League career home run list.

With a 3-0 lead heading into the fourth inning, Cleveland State used seven hits to push across six runs in the fourth for the win. That fourth inning took a group effort as Broschk, Woodard, Toman, McNew and Ferro all singled (with Broschk singling twice), and Darien Warddoubled for the CSU offense.

Susan Knightpitched all five innings in the game two victory, allowing just four hits while picking up two strikeouts to improve to 8-7 on the year.

The Vikings and Titans will be back at Viking Field tomorrow to close out the three game series at 2:00 p.m.