CONWAY, S.C. - The Cleveland State softball team split its first two games at the Coastal Carolina Kickin' Chicken Classic on Friday, falling 5-3 to Towson to open the tournament and knocking off Appalachian State, 11-2, in six innings in the Vikings second game of the day.
CSU is now 4-2 this year.
In the win over App State, the Vikings pounded out nine hits, scoring two runs in the third inning and three apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to cruise to the win.
After the Mountaineers scored in the top half of the third inning, Mackenzie Joecken delivered a two-run single in the bottom of the third to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead. App State responded with a run in the fourth to knot the contest at 2-2, but Katelind Phillips drew a bases loaded walk to give CSU a 3-2 lead in the fourth and Erica McNew followed with a two-run single to extend the lead to 5-2.
The Vikings plated three more runs in the fifth on a two-run double by Mel Woodard and an RBI single from Phillips and ended the game in the sixth on an RBI single from Alisha Silva and a two-run single by Susan Knight.
McNew finished the game with two hits, while seven different Vikings had one hit each. Knight, Phillips, McNew, Joecken and Woodard all drove in two runs, while Silva scored three runs and had an RBI.
Joecken earned the win in the circle, going all six innings. She gave up just two runs on seven hits and fanned six.
In the opener, Towson raced out to a 4-0 lead with two runs in the second and two more in the third. CSU used an RBI single from Silva in the fifth and a solo home run by Alyson Broschk in the sixth to trim the deficit to 4-2.
A solo home run in the bottom of the sixth extended Towson's lead to 5-2 and Knight cut the deficit to two runs (5-3) with a solo homer in the seventh, but the Vikings could not get any closer.
Phillips finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Riley Ries was 2-for-3.
The Vikings continue play in the tournament on Saturday (Feb. 20), playing host Coastal Carolina at 4:15 pm and Seton Hall at 6:30 pm.
