April 28, 2007

Game One Stats | Game Two Stats

CHICAGO - Cleveland State continued its recent regular season mastery over UIC by sweeping a pair of one-run decisions at Flames Field on Saturday. The Vikings scored 10 unanswered to win the first game, 10-9, before claiming the night cap, 2-1. CSU has now won 6-of-8 against UIC over the past three seasons.

Usually it's rare when a softball series features 19 runs, 29 hits and seven errors, but that's exactly what CSU and UIC combined for in the opening game on Saturday.

CSU missed a golden opportunity to jump on top in its first at-bat, stranding three after loading the bases with just one out.

UIC pushed ahead with single runs in the second and third and then plated a pair of unearned tallies in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead.

In the top of the fifth, Michele Penney doubled to lead off the inning. The Flames' shortstop was injured on the play, and the lengthy delay seemed to cause UIC starter Sarah Clynes to lose her rhythm. Following a pop-out, Christa Coppus singled to drive in Penney, Jessica Burt tripled and came around to score when Amanda Houchin followed with a RBI single.

Penney then added a two-run homer in the sixth to give the Vikings their first lead of the game at 5-4.

Houchin extended the lead with a two-run shot of her own in the seventh and Penney and Tara Meyer tacked on RBI singles to push the advantage to 10-4.

CSU would need every bit of the lead as UIC struck for five runs on six hits in the bottom of the seventh.

Christina Swierz evened her record at 3-3 despite giving up eight runs (six earned) on 11 hits in 6.2 innings of work. Amanda Macenko came in to record the last out to earn her second save of the season.

Clynes (12-14) took the loss, surrendering nine earned runs on 16 hits.

Penney finished 3-for-4 with three RBI and three runs scored, Houchin was 2-for-3 with three RBI and Coppus added three hits.

Clynes and Ashlee Ackerman both collected three hits for the Flames.

Cleveland state jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on a gift from UIC. With a runner on third and two outs, Haley Keller's pop-up was dropped by the Flames' catcher allowing Sarah Milosek to score. When Keller tried to advance to second on the play, UIC threw the ball into right-center field, as Keller came all the way around to score.

Macenko (16-8) made the runs stand up, giving up just six hits and a run while fanning three in her 16th complete game effort of the year.

UIC threatened in the seventh, breaking into the scoring column on Clynes' two-out double. However, Macenko got the next batter to fly out to end the game.

Chelsea Fuemmeler (3-13) took the loss despite not giving up an earned run in the complete game performance.

Coppus had her second straight three-hit game to raise her average to .407 on the year.

"We had some great at-bats today and never quit, even when we got down 4-0 in the first game," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "Both pitchers came up big for us today and we really took advantage of UIC's mistakes and made the most of our opportunities."

The teams close out the series with a single game on Sunday at noon CST.