March 14, 2010
Contact: Brian McCann
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Tess Sito hit her seventh home run of the season and Katelyn Ciminelli and Lia Gordon each drove in a pair of runs as Cleveland State routed Temple, 11-3 in six innings on Sunday in the final game of the USF Under Armour Showcase. The Vikings improve to 10-7 on the season, ending play in the rain-shortened tourney with a 2-1 record. Temple dips to 13-14 on the year. "We came ready to hit today," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "We knew we let one get away yesterday so we had a different focus in the batters box today and it sure showed. "We didn't have a very good defensive day. I think we got a lead and then relaxed a little bit and let the ball come to us instead of being aggressive. To have four errors is really uncharacteristic of this team, especially for the way we have been playing lately. Fortunately, I think it is something that can easily be corrected." Playing a the visitor, the Vikings jumped out to a 3-0 lead by scoring single runs in each of the first three innings. Jessica Burt led off the first with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball, to third on a Sito fly ball to centerfield and scored on a ground ball by Ciminelli. CSU manufactured a run in the second. With Alicia Nichols on first and Mimi Mahon on second, Burt singled to right field, but Mahon was thrown out at the plate. Nichols kept going to third on the play and came into score when catcher Krystle Metzler threw wildly to third. Sito scored in the third, reaching base on a error by third baseman Christina Sykora. She then stole second and went to third when the throw from Metzler sailed into center field. Lia Gordon brought Sito home on her team-leading third sacrifice fly of the season.
The Vikings broke the game open with four runs in the fourth to pull ahead, 7-0. Mahon led off with a double to right and came around to score on a single to center by Nichols. Nichols then stole second and scored when Burt was safe on a fielding error at first base. Burt promptly stole second, her ninth stolen base of the season, and jogged home when Sito blasted a two-run homer to left. Playing in just her 17th game, Sito has already ranks fifth on the CSU single season list with seven home runs, six shy of Gordon's school record set last year. The home run also extended her hitting streak to 16 games. The large lead allowed Nicholson to give starting pitcher Amanda Macenko the rest of the day off, as Kala Allred relieved her in the bottom of the fourth. Macenko had gone three innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out a pair to improve to 8-7 on the year. The win was the school record 88th of her career. Temple closed to within 7-3 in the bottom of the fifth ona three-run home run by Ali Robinson. The Vikings ended the game early in the sixth by plating four more runs. With runners on first and second, Sito singled to center to score Nichols and after Sito stole her team-best 15th base of the season to put runners at second and third, Ciminelli plated Burt on a ground ball to second and Gordon's single scored Sito. Gordon would advance to third on an error by the shortstop and then come into score on a sacrifice fly by Gabby Gillilan. "We did a really nice job of creating runs today," Nicholson said. "Proof of that is that we scored 11 runs with only two extra base hits today. If we can do that every day, then we will win a lot of games." Burt was one of the Viking offensive leaders, going two-for-four with three runs scored while Sito, Gordon and Mahon each had a pair of hits. The Vikings will now travel cross-state to Kissimmee, Fla. to play eight games in five days at the Rebel Games, starting with games against St. Peter (9:00 a.m.) and Fairleigh Dickinson (11:00 a.m.) on Monday (March 15). |
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