May 10, 2007
Contact: Alan Ashby
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Leading Off: Cleveland State heads into the 2007 Horizon League Championship as the hottest team in the league, having won its last 10 games to jump from seventh to second in the standings in a mere nine days. The Vikings, who are playing host to the tournament for the third time, finished as the runner-up in 2003 -- the last time the event was in Cleveland.
CSU To Face Familiar Foe: For the second year in a row, Cleveland State and Wright State will square off in the opening game of the Horizon League Championship. The Vikings, who are 24-22 all-time in the tournament and 6-3 against the Raiders, came out on the short end of last year's meeting, 6-3, before rallying for three straight victories. WSU won both regular season meetings on April 14 in Cleveland (8-5 & 4-3). CSU claimed the school's only tournament title with a perfect 4-0 mark in 1997, while also advancing to the championship game in 2003 and 2005.
Vikings Shoot Up The Standings: Prior to taking the field on April 28 at UIC, Cleveland State stood in seventh place in the league at 2-6, with all eight games having been played at home. However, by the conclusion of the Vikings' series at Detroit -- just nine days later -- CSU had vaulted all the way into second place thanks to six straight road wins. This marks the third time in the past four seasons that the Vikings have finished second in the league, adding a third-place finish in 2005.
Reversal Of Fortune: Cleveland State emphatically snapped its longest losing streak in more than two years, by rattling off a season-high 10 straight victories. The Vikings broke their six-game skid with three consecutive one-run victories over UIC and then followed it up with doubleheader sweeps of Robert Morris and Oakland before capping off the regular season with a three-game sweep at Detroit that featured two more one-run victories. The winning streak is the longest since the 2004 squad put together 11 victories in a row from April 9-21.
Penney Drives Reversal From Plate: While many different factors have contributed to Cleveland State's 10-game winning streak, none may be more important than Michele Penney's resurgence at the plate. In the Vikings' first 31 games, she hit just .269 with a pair of home runs and nine RBI. However, in the last 10 games, she is 13-for-32 (.406) with four doubles, five home runs and 14 RBI. The Ravenna, Ohio native has scored or driven in more than a third of CSU's runs during the outburst (21 of 59). One thing that has never changed is the senior center fielder's stellar play in the field as she has yet to commit an error this season in 55 chances.
...While Macenko Handles Duties In Circle: While freshman Amanda Macenko has had a banner year, the Brunswick, Ohio native has never been better than during Cleveland State's current 10-game winning streak. In nine appearances during the run, she is 8-0 with a save and a 1.24 ERA, allowing just eight earned runs in 45.1 innings of work.
Twin Killing: Cleveland State turned six double plays in seven games last week to vault into the top 20 in the nation. The Vikings rank 12th at 0.44 per game, turning 16 on the year.
