May 6, 2007
DETROIT - Cleveland State fought off a furious Detroit rally in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 6-5 victory on Sunday afternoon. By completing their second straight weekend sweep on the road, the Vikings earned the second seed in the upcoming Horizon League Championship on May 10-12 at Viking Field.
"Today was another example of how far we've come this season," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson. "Even though we got down early, we refused to give up and made the plays when it mattered most. Now we have to keep this momentum going into the tournament."
Detroit took a 2-0 lead after scoring single runs in the second and third innings, only to have CSU erupt for four in the fourth.
Michele Penney got things started with a double and came around to score two batters later on a RBI single by Danielle Young. Lia Gordon then followed with a run-scoring single of her own to knot the score. The Vikings closed out the frame by pushing across two more runs on an error.
Tara Meyer extended the advantage leading off the seventh inning with her first career home run. CSU tacked on another insurance run on consecutive singles by Christa Coppus, Jessica Burt and Amanda Houchin.
The Titans refused to go quietly in their final at-bat as Kaleigh Rafter launched her school record 13th home run with a runner on. Detroit drew to within 6-5 on an error, and had runners on first and third with no outs. However, first baseman Sarah Milosek turned a liner into an unassisted double play and Amanda Macenko induced a groundout to end the game.
Macenko scattered 13 hits, but gave up just three earned runs to improve to 23-8 on the year with her eighth consecutive victory. She now stands just one win shy of matching Amy Kyler's school record of 24 victories set in 1997.
Jill Perry (2-6) took the loss for Detroit, giving up 11 hits and six runs (four earned) in 6.1 innings of work.
Burt, Gordon and Meyer each collected a pair of hits for the Vikings, while Rafter finished a perfect 4-for-4 to pace the Titans.
No. 2 Cleveland State will square off against seventh-seeded Wright State on Thursday, May 10 at 9:00 a.m. in the opening game of the Horizon League Championship.
Game Notes: Cleveland State is the number two seed in the Horizon League Championship for the third time in the last four years, adding a third-place finish in 2005...the Vikings finished a perfect 6-0 on the road in league play...Amanda Macenko moved to within one of Amy Kyler's school record with her 23rd victory of the season, matching Grace Luginbuhl's total from last season...Macenko has also won eight consecutive decisions dating back to April 28... with 10 straight victories, the Vikings are in the midst of their longest winning streak since winning 11 in a row on April 9-21, 2004...six of the decisions during the skein have been of the one-run variety...CSU is now 14-0 this season when hitting at least one home run.
