HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Cleveland State pounded out 20 hits over two games and used a strong pitching performance from Macy Kaisk in the nightcap to earn a doubleheader sweep at Northern Kentucky on Friday afternoon.
CSU won the opener, 7-5, and took the nightcap, 4-1.
In the opener, the Vikings used an 11-hit attack, and solid performances in the circle from Mackenzie Joecken and Kristin Catalano to earn the win.
The Vikings wasted little time in getting on the board as Melissa Jacobsen led off the game with a single and scored on Joecken's two-run homer, her team-leading fifth of the season. Alicia Major added an RBI single to score Riley Ries and give CSU a 3-0 lead.
However, the Norse responded with three runs of their own in the first to knot the game at 3-3.
It stayed that way until the third when Bailee Gray delivered a two-run single to give the Vikings a 5-3 lead. In the fourth, Ries had a sacrifice foul out and Hanna Breeden followed with an RBI single to give the Vikings a 7-3 lead.
NKU added two runs in the seventh to slice the deficit to 7-5 and brought the tying run to the plate, but Catalano retired Ava Lawson on a pop-up to shortstop to end the game.
Jacobsen finished 2-for-4 with two runs, while Joecken, Breeden and Major all had two hits. Ries scored two runs and had an RBI.
Joecken earned the win, working the first 4 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on four hits with five strikeouts. Catalano was in the circle for the final 2 2/3 innings, and struck out one.
The nightcap belonged to Kaisk who fired a complete game to earn her first win of the season. She gave up just one run on eight hits with a strikeout.
CSU's offense gave Kaisk an early lead as Ries' RBI single scored Mel Woodard in the first and Jacobsen added a two-run single in the second to push the lead to 3-0.
Ries drove in Woodard with a single in the seventh to extend the lead to 4-1 before the Norse finally got to Kaisk with a run in the seventh.
Ries finished game two 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Woodard went 2-for-3 with two runs and Jacobsen drove in two.
The final game of the series is slated to be played on Saturday at 12:00 pm.
