April 11, 2009
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Mimi Mahon's pinch hit double keyed a two run fifth inning as Cleveland State rallied to defeat Loyola, 2-1 on Saturday at Viking Field.
The win allowed the Vikings to claim a 2-1 series win over the Ramblers, improving to 22-13 overall and 10-3 in league play. Loyola slips to 20-14 overall and 8-4 in conference action.
"The weather conditions made it very difficult to play today," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "With the wind blowing in, you just knew that this was going to be a low scoring game and that defense would be the key.
"From the very first inning we knew that we had to be prefect in our fundamentals if we wanted to win. Every mistake that you made would increase the chances of losing the game.
"I thought we battled and even though we made some mistakes, we ultimately made up for them with some strong defense and baserunning," Nicholson added.
In a pitching rematch from Friday's first game, which Loyola won in nine innings, 3-2, CSU's Amanda Macenko and Loyola's Amy Solava battled head-to-head.
The game was scoreless until the fourth when Loyola took advantage of a Viking miscue to take a 1-0 lead.
Kristen Medrud led off with an infield single to the hole at shortstop. Pinch-runner Stephanie Cihlar stole second and went to third when Amy Powell's throw went into centerfield. Haley Ambrosch followed with a one-hopper to second that Christa Coppus had to go to her knees to field and her throw home was weak, allowing Cihlar to score.
After leaving a pair of runners on base in both the second and fourth, the Vikings finally broke onto the board in the fifth.
Amy Powell led off with a walk and Christina Stoffer ran for her, promptly stealing second base and going to third when the Loyola second baseman mishandled the throw. After Shaylyn Adams struck out, Mimi Mahon pinch hit and crushed a drive to left field that a combination of the blowing wind and a setting sun caused Rambler left fielder Bridget Lally to lose site of the ball, having it fall in for a double to tie the game.
Alicia Nichols re-entered the game to run at second for Mahon. Danielle Young singled to center but Nichols stopped at third until Rambler centerfielder Stevie Bradich bobbled the ball and then threw it into the Rambler bench allowing Nichols to score and Young to take third and giving CSU a 2-1 lead.
The Vikings had a chance to score an insurance run in the fifth, but Young was called out at the plate on a bang-bang play on a bunt by Christa Coppus.
Loyola had chances to score in both the sixth and seventh.
With runners at first and second and one out in the sixth, Macenko got Haley Ambrosch to fly out to center, a ball that would have been a homerun had the wind not been blowing in from center, and Jenna Grim to ground out to end the inning.
With two outs in the seventh, Lauren Arceneaux singled and stole second. Bridget Lally followed with a line drive to first that Katelyn Ciminelli made a diving stop on but Lally beat the throw to first to put runners on the corners. Kayce Tharp grounded out to short on a close play to end the game.
"Loyola definitely had some chances at the end but our defense buckled down and made the plays when they needed to," Nicholson said.
Macenko picked up the win to improve to 18-9 this year. It was her ongoing school record 70th career victory.
The win allowed the Vikings remain in second place in the Horizon League with a 10-3 mark, slightly behind UIC (5-1) with Loyola (8-4) in third place.
CSU continues its 13-game home stand this week then it hosts Eastern Michigan for a doubleheader on Tuesday (April 14) at 3:00 p.m. at Viking Field.
