March 26, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

KENT, Ohio - Cleveland State raced out to a 6-1 lead, but could not hold it as the Vikings fell at Kent State, 9-7, in nonconference action on Wednesday afternoon.

The Vikings were playing their first game in 10 days after having their previous six games cancelled due to inclement weather.

CSU fell to 5-8 with the loss, the Kent improved to 8-10.

"We got out to a big lead and didn't hold onto it," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "And that is disappointing. We need to be able to hold onto leads like that if we want to be a championship team. We have to learn how to put people away.

"But we will learn from this and continue to work hard. There were some encouraging things out there today and we just need to get back to playing good baseball this weekend at Valparaiso."

CSU's top four hitters, Brad Buell, Alex Kerins, Kyle Bischof and Josh Geric, combined to go 9-for-17 with six runs and six RBI. Geric went 3-for-4 with three RBI, while Kerins drove in three.

Kocks also used six pitchers in order to give his staff some work after the long layoff. Brian Long, Dylan Henry and Sam Suitca worked two innings, while Drew Fronczek and Vasili Pahoulis worked one inning apiece. Chris Bauman also pitched.

"We wanted to give all our guys a chance to get out on the mound today," Kocks said. "Nobody has seen live game action for 10 days so it was good to get them out there and get them ready for the league opener this weekend."

The Vikings scored two runs in the first, second and fourth innings to stake claim to a 6-1 lead.

Kerins, the second batter of the game, got things started with a home run. Bischof followed with a single, stole second and came around to score on a Geric single.

In the second, Kerins delivered a sacrifice fly for his second RBI of the game, while Geric came through with a two-out RBI single to give CSU a 4-1 lead.

Buell led off the fourth with a double and was followed by Kerins, who hit his second homer of the afternoon to extend the CSU lead to 6-1.

However, Kent came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to slice its deficit to 6-4.

Bischof hit a solo homer in the sixth to push the lead back to 7-4, but the Golden Flashes had an answer in the seventh, using a solo homer to pull back to within two (7-5).

After the Vikings failed to score in the top of the eighth, Kent plated four runs on three hits, two walks and a wild pitch.

"We just blew up in the eighth," Kocks said. "We couldn't throw strikes and gave them to many opportunities that they took advantage of."

Pahoulis (1-3) took the loss, giving up two runs on two hits in one inning.

CSU will be back in action this weekend when the Vikings travel to Valparaiso for the Horizon League opening series. Game one is slated for Friday at 3:00 p.m., while the two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m.