April 7, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

YPSILANTI, Mich. - Alex Kerins went 3-for-5 with three home runs and drove in seven runs to lead Cleveland State to a 15-9 victory over Eastern Michigan in a nonconference game on Monday evening at Oestrike Stadium.

CSU pounded out a season-high 17 hits as eight of the nine starters had at least one hit. The 15 runs were also a season-high.

Kerins' three homers were one shy of tying the school-record of four set by Jeff Hasse against Youngstown State on April 6, 1999.

"Alex was great today," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "He really swung the bat well and got into a groove."

CSU snapped a two-game losing streak with the win and improved to 9-12, while EMU fell to 7-20.

"This was a good win for us and its good to get back on the winning side after losing a couple close games over the weekend," Kocks said. "It was a game that we needed to win and the guys really responded. We really swung the bats well and need to continue to do that."

Josh Geric finished 4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, while Brad Buell went 2-for-5 with three runs and drove in three.

Nate Blankemeyer got his first career start and responded with five innings, allowing six runs on eight hits to earn his first career win (1-0).

"It was good to get Blank his first career start and win," Kocks said.

Jeremy Hamilton worked one inning, while Drew Fronczek pitched the final three innings. He gave up just two hits and fanned three.

Bobby Henderson (0-4) took the loss for EMU, going just 3.1 innings. He gave up seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits and struck out three.

CSU jumped on the Eagles with three quick runs in the first inning as Buell led off the game with a double and Kerins followed with a two-run homer to centerfield. Geric delivered a one-out double and would come around to score on a Bobby Cash single.

However, the lead was short-lived as the Eagles responded with four runs of their own in the first inning, piecing together four straight hits to lead off the inning. Kyle Rhoad led off with a single and moved to second on a passed ball. Zack Leonard and Steve Bradshaw followed with back-to-back doubles and Aaron Powell hit a two-run homer to give EMU a 4-3 lead.

It stayed that way until the fourth when the Vikings plated four more runs to regain the lead. Adam Heideman and Josh Lowe hit back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and Heideman came around to score when Buell reached on an error.

That once again set the stage for Kerins who hit a three-run homer to score Lowe and Buell and give CSU a 7-3 lead.

The Vikings all but put the game out of reach with seven runs in the fifth. Buell had a two-run double, while Kerins hit a two-run home run, his third of the game. Cash and Foco also had RBI in the inning to extend the CSU lead to 14-3.

The Eagles attempted to mount a comeback with two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings, but Fronczek allowed just one run on two hits over the final three innings, including a home run to Matt Skirving in the eighth inning, to preserve the CSU win.

Geric added an RBI single in the ninth for the Vikings.

CSU has little time to savor the victory as the Vikings will be back in action on Tuesday, April 8, for a 3:00 p.m. contest at Canisius. Anthony Sambula is slated to start for CSU.