May 7, 2005
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
CLEVELAND - Cleveland State turned the battle for third place into a one-sided affair, blanking Loyola in both halves of a doubleheader at Viking Field on Saturday afternoon. Grace Luginbuhl earned a 2-0 win in game one, while J.J. Thornberry pitched CSU to a 5-0 victory in the nightcap.
With the sweep, the Vikings improve 20-24 overall and 9-5 in the Horizon League, while the Ramblers drop to 17-34, 8-8. CSU has won 14 of its last 19 games and 7-of-8 in the league to clinch at least the third seed in the upcoming league championship. The Vikings can still catch UW-Green Bay for second with a win tomorrow coupled with a Phoenix loss.
Luginbuhl (12-12) was solid in the opener, giving up just four hits and a walk while fanning five en route to her second shutout of the year. After putting runners on first and second with one out in the top of the first, Loyola failed to advance a runner base second the rest of the game.
Mia Pangere gave up six hits and an earned run to fall to 7-11.
Cleveland State got on board in the second when Anna Hubert reached on an error, advanced to second on a single by Kaitlin Guyette and came around to score on a Whitney Willard double.
The Vikings tacked on an insurance run when Shannon Graves singled to the pitcher -- her third hit of the day -- and kept running when the Ramblers failed to cover second. She then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on the back end of a double steal.
In game two, Loyola failed to take advantage of five outs in both the first and fourth innings. CSU made a pair of errors in both frames, but Thornberry escaped out of bases-loaded jams in both cases. In the fourth, Willard saved at least one run with her glove, making a running catch at the warning track in left field and doubling the runner off of second base.
Thornberry evened her record at 7-7, giving up five hits and striking out four in 6.0 innings of work. Luginbuhl came on in the seventh to record the final three outs.
Katie Schupbach was touched for 11 hits and four earned runs to drop to 5-13.
Luginbuhl, Hubert and Willard each collected a pair of hits for CSU.
The Vikings opened the scoring in the second when Michele Penney reached on an infield single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Thornberry double.
Luginbuhl tacked on two more with a triple in the fifth and CSU would close out the scoring in the sixth, using three hits and an error to plate a pair.
"Our pitching was huge today -- both Grace and J.J. did a great job and we hit the ball hard all over the park," CSU head coach Julie Jones noted. "It's hard to believe that we have a chance to finish second with everything we've been through. It just shows that we've got a ton of heart."
The teams wrap up the regular season with a single game on Sunday (May 8) at 1:00 p.m. at Viking Field. Admission is free of charge.
