May 5, 2011
Contact: Brian McCann
DETROIT, Mich. - Cleveland State tied a school record with four home runs and Tess Sito struck out 10 batters or more for the third straight game as the Vikings defeated Detroit, 5-1, on Thursday afternoon at Buysse Ballpark to complete the three-game sweep of the Titans.
The Vikings improved to 28-17 on the year and 13-6 in league play to move a half game ahead of Valparaiso (13-7), Loyola (13-7) and Butler (14-8) in the Horizon League standings heading into the final three game series of the league season.
"Yesterday we had a lot of hits but none seemed to be for extra bases and today, everything we hit went out of the yard," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "It was good to see the power return to our lineup, but we are going to need to continue to string hits together to get past Valpo this weekend."
"This wasn't the prettiest of series, but we did what we needed to do to get three wins and move into first place. Now it is time to put all of the facets together so that we can achieve our goal of winning the regular season title and go on to earn the league's NCAA berth."
The Vikings took a 1-0 lead in the second when Dara Toman led off with her team-leading ninth home run of the season, a blast to straight away centerfield. It was the 25th of Toman's short Viking career, leaving her one behind Lia Gordon, who holds the CSU record with 26 career home runs from 1997-2000.
CSU extended the lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Megan Bashak clouted a two-run homer to center, her first of the season, scoring Afton Allred who had reached on a fielder's choice.
Cleveland State rounded out its scoring with a solo home run by Gabby Gillilan in the fifth and a solo blast by Allred in the sixth. It was the fourth of the season for Gillilan and first for Allred.
Detroit registered its only home run in the bottom of the sixth when Sarah Cupp hit her second long ball of the season to pull the Titans to within 5-1.
That was the only blemish against Sito, who allowed just four hits in seven innings of work to improve to 24-14 on the season. She now ranks fourth in school history in wins in a season and third with 278 strikeouts.
"Tess is throwing well and we are going to need that over the next week and a half because every game will mean a little something more than usual," Nicholson said.
The Vikings head to Valparaiso with the conference title race perfectly clear, though weather could cloud things up considerably. With second place Loyola (13-7) playing a three-game series at last place Detroit, the Vikings expect that they must finish with a winning percentage of .696 or higher if they want to claim the top seed in the tourney and host the league tourney next week.
To do that, CSU can not lose any of the games it plays against the Crusaders this week. A three-game sweep would put the Vikings at 16-6 (.727). If poor weather cancels any of the games, CSU can stay ahead in the race by winning either one or two games without a loss.
In other action, Loyola is at Detroit, UIC is at Wright State and Green Bay is at Youngstown State.
The top five teams in the standings each have a chance to claim the regular season crown.
"We need to go to Indiana and play our best and see what it brings us," Nicholson added.
