VALPARAISO, Ind. - Erica McNew tied an NCAA record with four intentional walks in both games and Cleveland State split a doubleheader at Valparaiso today. The Vikings dropped the opener, 2-1, and won game two, 10-7, to take two of three games in the series.
CSU is now 11-26 this year and 4-8 in the Horizon League, while the Crusaders are 9-26 overall and 4-9 in the League.
McNew was intentionally walked in all four of her plate appearances in the opener, tying the NCAA record for most intentional walks in a game. She is the ninth player to draw four intentional walks in a game in NCAA history.
McNew went 1-for-1 with a single and was intentionally walked four times in game two, extending her streak of consecutive plate appearances reaching base to 14 straight dating to the final game of the Youngstown State series, tied for the second most in NCAA history. The record is 18 straight.
She is just the second player in NCAA history to be intentionally walked four times in two different games.
McNew finished the three-game series at Valparaiso going 2-for-2 at the plate with 11 walks, including 10 intentional. She had a 2.500 slugging percentage and a 1.000 on-base percentage, hitting a three-run homer in the seventh inning of Friday's series opener to give CSU a 5-2 win.
Mackenzie Joecken hit a first inning grand slam in the nightcap, the fourth grand slam for the Vikings this year. Riley Ries has two, while McNew has the other.
CSU returns to action for a three-game series against Northern Kentucky at Viking Field next weekend. The teams will play one game on Friday (April 22) and a doubleheader on Saturady (April 23).
GAME 1: Valparaiso 2, Cleveland State 1
The Vikings took a 1-0 lead in the first on Mel Woodard's bases loaded RBI single. It stayed that way until the fourth inning when a sacrifice fly from Carly Trepanier tied the game and the Crusaders scored the game-winning run in the sixth inning on a Mollie Lindeman double.
CSU was able to get the tying run into scoring position with two outs, but could not muster the tying run.
The Vikings were limited to just two hits in the opener - one each from Woodard and Alyson Broschk, but did draw 11 walks in the game.
Mackenzie Joecken worked 5 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts.
GAME 2: Cleveland State 10, Valparaiso 7
Mackenzie Joecken's first inning grand slam gave the Vikings an early lead as CSU went on to win the series finale at Valparaiso and win the series, 2-1.
CSU used three straight walks to load the bases to open the game and Mel Woodard delivered an RBI single to open the scoring. Joecken followed with a grand slam to extend the lead to 5-0.
An unearned run on a Crusader error in the third gave the Vikings a 6-0 lead and it stayed that way until Valparaiso cut the lead in half with three runs in the fifth inning.
An RBI double from Riley Ries and sacrifice fly by Alyson Broschk extended the CSU lead to 8-3, but the Crusaders came back with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull within one run (8-7). However, Darien Ward stole home as part of a double steal with Kait Gairing and Ries was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded as the Vikings scored a pair of insurance runs in the seventh inning to take a 10-7 lead.
Susan Knight struck out the side in the seventh inning to earn her first save of the season. Macy Kaisk worked five innings, giving up six runs on six hits with two strikeouts to earn the win and improve to 4-7 this year.
