April 29, 2011
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Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State combined aggressive base running, solid defense, timely hitting, two key sacrifices and good pitching to claim a 3-1 win over Youngstown State on Friday evening at Viking Field.
The win improves the Vikings to 23-17 overall and 8-6 in the Horizon League, while the Penguins fall to 22-19 overall and 5-11 in league play.
"This was a good team win for us today," head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We played great defense and managed some runs with good base running today. We are an aggressive team on the base paths and like to take some chances to put pressure on the defense and that's what we did today."
The Vikings struck first with two runs in the second inning with their aggressive style on the bases.
Katelyn Ciminelli singled to start the inning and moved to second when Macall Sheppard worked a walk to put runners on first and second. Amy Powell followed with a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners into scoring position and Ciminelli would score on a wild pitch.
Megan Bashak followed with a walk to put runners on the corners and that's when Nicholson called for the double steal. Bashak broke for second and on the throw down, stopped and forced the YSU shortstop to run her back toward first base. Sheppard broke for the plate and the Penguin throw home was off-line, allowing Sheppard to score and make it 2-0.
"That is a play we work on everyday and love to use," Nicholson said. "We just haven't had a lot of chances to use it this year, but today we executed it very well to steal a run."
YSU sliced the lead in half in the fourth on back-to-back two out doubles by Sarah Gabel and Amanda Palmore, but an Andrea Nagy sacrifice fly in the fifth inning put the Vikings back ahead by two runs (3-1) and that was more than enough support for Tess Sito who threw a complete game, five-hitter with six strikeouts to improve to 19-14.
Casey Crozier took the loss for the Penguins (12-9), giving up three runs (two earned) on five hits. She struck out two and walked three.
The Vikings will host YSU for the final two games in the three game series on Saturday (April 30) at Viking Field beginning at 1:00 p.m.
It will be Senior Day with Viking seniors Kala Allred, Jessica Burt, Katelyn Ciminelli and Amy Powell being honored in a pre-game ceremony. The quartet has combined to start over 500 games in their careers, helping lead CSU to two Horizon League regular season titles, one tournament championship and the 2009 NCAA Championships.
