May 14, 2005
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
GREEN BAY, Wis. - Less than 24 hours after advancing to the championship game on a dramatic extra-inning walk-off home run of its own, Cleveland State was done in by not one, but two walk-off long balls as UW-Green Bay defeated the Vikings twice to win the 2005 Horizon League Softball Championship. The Phoenix claimed the title with a 2-1 victory in 10 innings after forcing a second game with a 3-1 win in the eighth inning of the first game.
Cleveland State entered play on Saturday needing just one victory after advancing through the winner's bracket with an unblemished 3-0 record. UW-Green Bay upended Detroit 10-1 in five innings earlier in the morning to move out of the loser's bracket. The Vikings were making their third title game appearance, claiming their only championship in 1997.
In the opener, it looked as though an Ali Rostkowski solo home run in the bottom of the fourth would be all the Phoenix would need in support of starter Stephanie Hansen, who was locked in a pitcher's duel with CSU's Grace Luginbuhl.
Hansen handcuffed the Vikings through six innings, limiting them to just five hits. However, Luginbuhl hit her first career home run leading off the top of the seventh to force extra innings. After walking the leadoff batter in the bottom of the inning, Luginbuhl struck out the next three batters to retire the side.
Hansen set CSU down in order in the top of the eighth and then came up to bat in the home half of the inning with a runner on first and one out. She promptly ended the game with a two-run homer over the left field wall.
Luginbuhl (16-13) took the loss despite scattering six hits while fanning 12. Hansen allowed five hits and struck out 11 to improve to 8-6.
UW-Green Bay threatened to blow the final game open in the bottom of the first, loading the bases with one out against CSU starter J.J. Thornberry. However, she wiggled out of the jam, allowing just one run on a fielder's choice.
The Vikings wasted a leadoff double in the second by Michele Penney and a leadoff walk in the next frame as Phoenix starter Lisa Meissner recorded strikeouts for nine of the first 10 outs of the game.
In yet another contest dominated by the starting pitchers, CSU once again headed into its final at-bat trailing 1-0 -- and for the second straight time, the Vikings refused to go quietly. Anna Hubert started things out with a one-out walk. After a fly out, Kaitlin Guyette worked a full count before also drawing a walk. Down to her final strike, Amber Lowe blooped a single over second base to score Hubert and knot the score, 1-1. Whitney Willard nearly plated both runners, but her liner to center field was snagged for the third out.
Following a 45-minute rain delay, neither team was able to advance a runner past first base until the 10th inning, when UW-Green Bay's Michelle Kaminski stepped up with one out and lined a 2-1 pitch over the fence in left center, touching off a wild celebration and giving the Phoenix their first Horizon League championship.
Meissner struck out 15 and allowed just five hits to improve to 9-6. Thornberry (7-8) also went the distance, scattering nine hits.
"It came down to our inability to hit, plain and simple," CSU head coach Julie Jones said. "Grace and J.J. put us in a position to win both games, but we just couldn't get our offense going at all during the tournament. Give Green Bay credit, they did what they needed to do to win.
"Regardless of today's outcome, I couldn't be more proud of this team. They played with heart all year long and never once gave up. We went into the seventh inning behind in both games and could have just gone quietly. That's not in the character of these players."
Penney, Luginbuhl and Jackie Cornelius each earned a spot on the all-tournament team. Luginbuhl also garnered all-tournament recognition as a freshman in 2003.
