April 30, 2011
Video has no source Url in width="610" height="455">
Video has no source Url in width="610" height="455">
Contact: Greg Murphy
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Andrea Nagy hit a first inning grand slam in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader and tied a CSU single game school record with six RBI to help spark the Vikings to an 11-0 five inning victory over Youngstown State at Viking Field. The Vikings also won Saturday's first game, 3-1, to complete a three-game sweep of the Penguins.
The Vikings, who won the series opener on Friday night, 3-1, now lead the all-time series with the Penguins, 46-45.
The two victories today helped the Vikings improve to 25-17 overall and 10-6 in the Horizon League, helping inch CSU close the gap at the top of the league standings. Loyola entered the day in first place at 12-5 and was followed closely by Butler and Valparaiso at 12-7 and UIC at 10-7.
YSU fell to 22-21 overall and 5-13 in the league.
CSU concludes league play with a three game series at Detroit on Tuesday and Wednesday (May 3-4) and three more contests at Valparaiso on Saturday and Sunday (May 7-8).
Today's two wins were extra special for the five seniors on CSU's roster - Kala Allred, Brittany Bate, Jessica Burt, Katelyn Ciminelli and Amy Powell - who were honored between games on Senior Day.
"Senior Day is always a very emotional day and today was no different," head coach Angie Nicholson said. "This group came in with me and it's hard to see their time with this program closing to an end. I thought we really kept our emotions in check after the ceremony and came out with a lot of energy and passion in the second game and hit the ball all over the yard. We were very aggressive and the plate and I have a feeling that this team is starting to come together and find its groove. And this is the time of the year you want that to happen."
The Vikings didn't wait long to start offensively in the nightcap as Burt singled to lead off the first and moved to second on a sacrifice from Gabby Gillilan. Tess Sito singled and Dara Toman followed with a walk to load the bases for Nagy, who sent a rope over the left centerfield fence for her third homer of the year.
Nagy came through again in the second inning, using a suicide squeeze bunt to score Sito from third base and push the Viking lead to 6-0. CSU added another tally in the third when Burt and Alicia Nichols executed a double steal, allowing Nichols to score from third.
"That's a play we work on every day and love to use," Nicholson said.
The floodgates opened once again in the fourth as CSU batted around, scoring four times on five hits.
Nagy added another RBI - her sixth of the game - on a fielder's choice, while Ciminelli and Bate added RBI singles. For Bate, who is listed as a pitcher on the roster, it was her sixth hit in 19 at-bats this season and first career run batted in.
Sito was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst as she pitched her 25th complete game and 10th shutout of the season. She gave up just two hits and fanned four, while also going 3-for-3 at the plate with three runs.
Burt and Ciminelli both went 2-for-3 in game two with Ciminelli scoring two runs and Burt one. Both also had an RBI.
The 11 runs tied a season-high for the Vikings.
In the opener, the Vikings took a 1-0 lead when they managed a run in the third inning. Megan Bashak started the run with a one out walk and moved to second on a single by Burt. The duo each moved up a base on a throwing error by YSU catcher Vicky Rumpf and Bashak came around to score on a Gillialan RBI groundout.
Another YSU error led to CSU's second run of the game, this one coming in the fourth. Dara Toman led off with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nagy. Ciminelli followed with a strikeout, but was able to advance to first when Rumpf dropped the third strike and had an errant throw to first base that also allowed Toman to score from second base.
YSU cut the lead in half to 2-1 on a home run by Haley Thomas in the sixth inning, just the second hit of the game for the Penguins. However, Toman answered right back with her team-leading eighth homer of the season in the bottom of the sixth, putting CSU ahead 3-1.
Toman finished the opener 2-for-2 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Sito fired a two-hit complete game with two strikeouts to pick up her 20th win of the year. She surrendered just two runs in 19 innings of work in the three games against YSU this weekend (0.74 ERA) as she was aided by several key defensive plays behind her all weekend.
The Vikings close out their 2011 home slate when CSU hosts Robert Morris for a doubleheader on Monday (May 2) beginning at 3:00 p.m. at Viking Field.
