April 19, 2005
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
CLEVELAND - It took nearly five hours for Cleveland State and Youngstown State to settle matters in their Horizon League twin bill on Tuesday afternoon at Viking Field. When the dust had finally settled, the Vikings had earned a dramatic sweep, winning the first game, 4-3, in 13 innings before prevailing, 6-5, with a seventh inning rally in the night cap.
With the victory CSU (12-21) leveled its Horizon League record at 4-4 and improved to 8-3 on the year at home.
Youngstown State (16-27, 2-11 HL) struck first in the opener, scoring a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fifth. CSU answered with a pair of unearned tallies of their own in the sixth to knot the score.
The Penguins pushed a run across in the ninth on an RBI single by Char Kudlock. The Vikings answered though in their at-bat, as Jackie Cornelius led off with a single, went to second on a sacrifice, moved to third on a ground out and scored on an Amber Lowe single.
The game would remain deadlocked until the bottom of the 13th when Anna Hubert started things off with a one-out walk. Whitney Willard followed with a single and both runners took an extra base on an error by the right fielder. Lowe then drove in Hubert with her fourth hit of the game.
Grace Luginbuhl (6-11) went the distance for CSU, giving up 14 hits and one earned run while fanning 10 with no walks. Karlie Burnell fell to 2-7 despite surrendering just one earned run in seven innings of relief work.
The teams appeared headed for extra innings again in the night cap, as they headed to the bottom of the sixth inning knotted at 1-1. However, the Vikings appeared to put the game out of reach, plating three unearned runs on just one hit, a walk, a wild pitch and a pair of Penguin errors.
Youngstown State refused to go quietly in the seventh, scoring four runs on five hits and an error to take a 5-4 advantage. Kudlock got the rally started with a one-out, two-run home run over the center field fence.
Down to their final at-bat yet again, the Vikings once again found an answer. Michele Penney led off with a walk and Kaitlin Guyette followed with a bunt single. After both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt, Jackie Cornelius tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Hubert then stepped to the plate and lined a double to the gap in right field for the game-winner.
Luginbuhl (7-11) earned the win with two-thirds of an inning in relief of CSU starter J.J. Thornberry. Thornberry gave up eight hits and four runs while striking out four in 6.1 innings of work. Kelly Murphy (7-9) took the loss in 2.1 innings of relief.
"The fact that we refuse to give up is starting to pay off in terms of victories," CSU head coach Julie Jones said. "Jackie and Annie came through in the second game when we really needed it and our pitching was outstanding all day long. Those were two exciting games and just what we needed heading on the road."
Cleveland State now embarks on a 12-game road trip having won six of its last eight games. The Vikings will head to St. Francis (Pa.) for a doubleheader on Thursday (April 21) followed by a three-game set at Detroit over the weekend (April 23-24).
