CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland State softball team dropped the first two games of its Horizon League series to Youngstown State on Wednesday at Viking Field.
CSU dropped the opener, 15-12, and fell in game two, 4-2.
The Vikings are 8-25 overall and 1-7 in the Horizon League, while YSU improved to 20-13 overall and 7-2 in the League.
The teams will conclude the three-game series with a 12:30 pm contest on Thursday (April 14) afternoon.
GAME 1 - Youngstown State 15, Cleveland State 12
Cleveland State rallied with eight runs over the final two innings, but fell short in a 15-12 setback in today's opener against Youngstown State.
The Vikings answered three YSU runs in the first inning with three of their own in the first as Susan Knight delivered a two-run double and Mel Woodard followed with an RBI groundout. However, the Penguins used a pair of runs in the second and third innings to take a 7-3 lead.
Woodard's RBI single in the bottom of the third pulled the Vikings within 7-4, but YSU came right back with three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth to open up a 14-4 lead.
CSU's bats came alive in the sixth as the Vikings scored four runs on four hits, including an RBI double from Erica McNew, an RBI single by Knight and a two-run single from Kait Gairing.
Brittney Moffat led off the seventh inning with a homer to push the Penguins lead to 15-8, but Erica McNew's three-run homer and an RBI single by Alyson Broschk brought CSU within three at 15-12, but the Penguins held on to win the opener.
McNew went 3-for-4 with four runs and four RBI in the opener. Her home run was the 44th of her career, tying her for second all-time in school history with Cynthia Woodard.
Katelind Phillips, Knight, Broschk and Gairing all had two hits, while Knight drove in three runs.
GAME 2 - Youngstown State 4, Cleveland State 2
The Vikings took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Alisha Silva's RBI single, but YSU rallied with three runs on six hits in the fourth inning to take a 3-1 lead.
It stayed that way until the sixth when Sydney Morgan's RBI ground out pulled the Vikings within 3-2, but Cali Mikovich's RBI ground out in the seventh gave the Penguins an insurance run and YSU worked around a leadoff walk to McNew in the bottom of the seventh to earn the doubleheader sweep.
Silva had two of CSU's four hits in the nightcap with Knight and Gairing finishing with one hit apiece.
