April 5, 2008

Game 1 Stats
Game 2 Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

LORAIN, Ohio - Josh Hungerman worked eight innings and drove in two runs in the opener to lead Cleveland State to a 6-5 win over Wright State in the Vikings home opener on Saturday afternoon in Horizon League action at The Pipe Yard.

The Raiders rallied behind a strong pitching performance by Jon Durket to take the nightcap, 5-4.

CSU is now 8-11 overall and 3-2 in the Horizon League, while Wright State improved to 10-14 overall and 3-4 in league play.

"It was good to get a win in the opener, but we are not satisfied with a split," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "We made some mental errors in game two and they hurt us. We need to execute the basic fundamentals in this program and we didn't do that in the second game.

"We got two great pitching performances from Josh and Brian and some timely hitting in game one. We didn't get our offense going in the second game until late and that hurt us."

Josh Hungerman improved to 2-2 by working eight strong innings in the opener. He allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits while striking out five. Vasili Pahoulis earned his third save of the season by registering the final three outs.

Ryan Ostronsky (0-2) took the loss in game one for the Raiders. He lasted just 2.1 innings, giving up six runs on seven hits. Scott Ruthven and Alex Kaminsky combined to work 5.2 innings out of the bullpen, giving up just two hits and fanning four.

In the opener, Hungerman aided his own cause with a two-run triple in the first inning as the three bagger scored Alex Kerins and Kyle Bischof who had back-to-back one out singles.

The Raiders came back with two runs in the third on RBI singles from RJ Gundloff and Jeremy Hamilton. However, CSU responded with four runs in the bottom half of the third to take a 6-2 lead, using a pair of long balls.

Brad Buell led off the inning with a double and Kerins followed with a single. Bischof then delivered the big blow with a three-run homer to rightfield. It was the fourth straight game with a homer and fifth out of the last six for the Louisville, Ky., native. After Hungerman popped out, Josh Geric hit his second homer of the season to extend CSU's lead to 6-2.

The game remained that way until the fifth when Wright State tallied a run to slice its deficit to 6-3. Jeremy Hamilton delivered a two-out double. He appeared to be picked off, but Hungerman dropped a throw before being able to tag out Hamilton at third. The error came back to haunt the southpaw as Justin Parker followed with a single to score Hamilton.

WSU added another run in the sixth as Jeff Mercer led off with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Ross Vagedes hit a double into the rightcenterfield gap to plate Mercer and pull the Raiders within two at 6-5. The Raiders scored a run in the top of the ninth to close the gap to 6-5 with one out, but Pahoulis recorded back-to-back strike outs of Hamilton and Parker with runners on first and second to end the game.

Kerins, Bischof and Hungerman all went 2-for-4 in the opener, with Bischof and Hungerman driving in two runs each and Kerins and Bischof scoring twice.

Wright State got off to a quick start in game two, scoring three times in the first inning with two outs. After CSU starter Brian Long retired the first two batters with groundouts, Hamilton walked and advanced to third on a single by Parker. Hamilton came around to score on a two-out single from Casey McGrew and Jeff Mercer followed with a two-run double.

Bischof got the Vikings on the board with a solo homer in the fourth, his sixth homer of the season, extending his streak to five straight games with a home run.

It remained 3-1 until the eighth when Mercer slapped a two-run single through the right side to score to runs and extend the Raider lead to 5-1 and seemingly put WSU in control.

However, CSU responded with three runs in the eighth to cut the deficit to one (5-4). Pinch hitter Dustin Mills started the rally with a one out single and moved to second on a Brad Buell single. Both runners came around to score on a double by Alex Kerins. A Bischof groundout moved Kerins to third and he would come in to score CSU's fourth run on a throwing error.

However, that would be as close as the Vikings would get as Greg Robinson recorded the final four outs of the game to earn his first save of the season.

Durket lasted 7.2 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and fanning three to pick up his first win of the season (1-2).

Brian Long (3-2) took the loss, despite eight solid innings. He gave up five runs on 10 hits with three strikeouts. Drew Fronczek retired three straight in the ninth.

Bischof finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run to lead CSU in game two. Buell, Kerins and Hungerman were the only other Vikings to record a hit.

The two teams will conclude their three-game series with a single, nine-inning contest on Sunday, April 6, at the Pipe Yard beginning at 12:00 p.m.