May 9, 2009
Contact: Brian McCann
PENDLETON, Ind. - Lia Gordon drove in four runs, Natalie DeMatteis added her second homerun in as many games and Amanda Macenko set the school record for wins in a season for the third straight year as Cleveland State raced past UIC, 8-5, to advance to the title game of the Horizon League Championship for the fourth time in five years.
CSU, which has now won eight games in a row, improved to 34-15 on the year, the third-highest single season win total in school history. The Vikings will play in the championship game of the tourney at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday (May 9), needing to win just one of two games in order to secure their second NCAA Championship berth in school history.
"I have said all week that our kids are locked in right now on a goal and they aren't going to let anything stop them," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We jumped out and took an early lead for the third straight game and even though UIC came back, we didn't get down. Instead we went right at them and regained control.
"I saw some really good things tonight. We continue to hit line drives at the plate to the point where a lot of our outs were hit real well but just right at somebody.
"Amanda (Macenko) was really on tonight. Four of the five runs we let up were unearned so to limit a team like UIC to just one run is a solid performance."
The Vikings jumped out quickly, touching up UIC starter Sarah Clynes for four runs in the first inning, giving CSU a 8-0 scoring edge in the first inning of the three tournament games.
Christa Coppus opened up her third consecutive game by drawing a walk. Danielle Young followed with a seeing-eye single up the middle. Both runners advanced on a ground ball out by Amanda Houchin and came into score on a double to the left-center gap by Lia Gordon.
After Mimi Mahon was set down on strikes for the second out, Natalie DeMatteis crushed her second homerun of the year - and the tournament - to right center field to score DeMattias and put CSU ahead, 4-0.
That was all for Clynes, who moved back to her customary left field spot with Ashley Hewitt coming on to pitch.
The Flames answered back with three runs in the bottom of the frame using a rally that started with two outs. Stephanie Chavez and Brooke Frydendall each singled and the Vikings appeared to be out of the inning when Melissa Marinacci launched a high fly to right field that Shalyn Adams misplayed, allowing both runners to score and Marinacci to take third. Hewett followed with a double down the left field line to score Marinacci and pull UIC to within 4-3.
UIC tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fourth when they used a single and two walks to load the bases with one out with Christie Seddon scoring from third on a ground ball out by Melinda Macias.
The tie proved to be short-lived as the Vikings came back in the top of the fifth to score four times.
Christa Coppus led off the frame with a double off the wall in left, going to third when Danielle Young grounded out to the pitcher. Houchin walked to put runners on the corner with Alicia Nichols pinch-running at first. Nichols stole second and Gordon broke the tie with a single just over the head of the second baseman to score Coppus and Nichols.
Christina Stoffer pinch ran for Gordon at third and promptly turned in the play of the day. Mimi Mahon singled to right center and Stoffer, who was running on the pitch, not only made it to third, but was a third of the way down the line towards the plate when the throw from center came in. Hung up on the play, Stoffer got into a run down, eventually sliding safely into home plate, avoiding the tag of pitcher Ashley Hewitt to give CSU a 7-4 lead.
Mahon, who wisely kept running on the play, ended up on third and scored on a two-out single by Shalyn Adams to make it an 8-4 Viking lead.
UIC got one run back in the bottom of the fifth when Abbot was safe on an error, allowing Marinacci to score.
Macenko, who earlier in the week was tabbed as the league pitcher of the year for the second straight season, took over after that, retiring the final seven batters she faced to complete the win. She allowed five runs (one unearned) on eight hits, striking out six and walking two. She improved to 27-11 this year, breaking her own school record of 6 wins set in each of the last two seasons.
The Vikings pounded out 12 hits off three different UIC pitchers. Sarah Clynes was the starter and loser, dropping to 7-14 on the year, after allowing four runs on three hits and a walk in two-third of an inning. Ashley Hewett relieved Clynes in the first and threw 4.1 innings of relief, allowing four runs on seven hits, striking out six with one walk. Whitney Orellana finished up, throwing two scoreless innings of relief.
Gordon led the CSU attack by going three-for-three with a walk and four RBI. Natalie DeMatteis added a pair of hits and two RBI while Christa Coppus had two hits and two runs scored from the leadoff spot. Seven different players scored a run and eight had at least one hit.
