Oct. 5, 2008

Contact: Brian McCann

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Amanda Macenko pitched her second two-hit shutout of the weekend as Cleveland State split a pair of games on Sunday at the Penn State Fall Invitational. The Vikings defeated Lock Haven, 1-0, before falling to Buffalo, 9-3.

The split allowed CSU to finish the tourney with a 3-1 record and end its abbreviated fall schedule with a 6-1 mark.

"This was another pretty good day for us," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said. "Even though we only split the two games, I think we found out an awful lot about ourselves. It will give us a lot to think about between now and February, when we start the season for real.

"We've got a very strong team from the top of the lineup to the bottom. We don't have a lot of questions to answer for the spring, we just need to find the best way to take advantage of the depth and skill on our roster."

Macenko opened the day by striking out seven and limiting Lock Haven, who went 49-8 and finished second in the NCAA Division II World Series last spring, to just a pair of fifth inning singles.

"Just like yesterday, Amanda was dominant in the circle today. She only had the one inning where she allowed Lock Haven to get something going but she then toughened up and shut the door," Nicholson said.

Cleveland State scored the only run of the game in the top of the sixth when with two out, Amanda Houchin singled and came around to score on a double to deep center by Haley Keller.

Buffalo scored three runs in the first off starter Brittany Bate in the first inning and never looked back en route to the win. They added single runs in the third and fifth before exploding for four runs in the seventh.

Macenko relieved Bate, who failed to get an out, and pitched two scoreless innings before giving way to Kayla Allred in the third inning. Allred went the final five innings, allowing six runs on nine hits, giving up a pair of home runs.

The Vikings scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to close to within 4-2. Katelyn Ciminelli and Amanda Houchin had back-to-back singles to get the rally going and they eventually scored on a passed ball and a throwing error by the catcher while trying to throw out a base stealer at second.

CSU added a run in the bottom of the seventh on a Christa Coppus RBI single, but it was not enough.

Macenko, who threw nine scoreless innings on Sunday, finishes the spring having thrown 33 scoreless innings this fall, striking out 39 while allowing just 13 hits. "Even though we lost the last game, it doesn't take away from what we have done this fall. If we an carry this play over to the spring, than we will have a very good year."