May 10, 2007
Cleveland State's 10-game winning streak came to a crashing halt with a 4-3 loss to seventh-seeded Wright State in the opening game of the Horizon League Championship at Viking Field. The second-seeded Vikings now drop into the loser's bracket where they will face the loser of the UW-Green Bay-Butler game at 6:00 p.m. Thursday evening.
"Unfortunately, we reverted to our form from a couple of weeks ago at the worst possible time," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "You just give a good team that many extra outs and expect to win. This team doesn't have any quit in them though and we are going keep battling."
CSU (29-13) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Christa Coppus led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice and came around to score when Amanda Houchin singled.
The Raiders (22-33) scored three in the third, using four hits and a pair of Viking errors. WSU extended the margin to 4-1 in the fifth thanks to a walk and another CSU miscue.
However, the Vikings fought back in the home half of the fifth, scoring on a throwing error and an RBI single by Jessica Burt. The Raiders brought in reliever Jamie Perkins, who was able to escape from a two-one, one-out jam to preserve the 4-3 lead.
Perkins would retire all eight batters she would face to earn her second save of the season. WSU starter Allison Cox gave up eight hits and three runs in 4.1 innings to improve to 14-13.
Meanwhile, Amanda Macenko saw her personal eight-game winning streak come to an end despite giving up just one earned run. She allowed 10 hits while striking out seven in falling to 23-9.
Coppus and Houchin paced CSU with two hits apiece, with Coppus scoring twice.
Perkins and Malerie Klinger each had to hits for the Raiders.
