April 9, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

LORAIN, Ohio - Cleveland State won its third straight game in as many days and moved one game closer to .500 with an 8-4 triumph over Malone on Wednesday evening at The Pipe Yard.

CSU improved to 11-12 overall and is now three wins shy of tying its win total from all of last season. Malone slipped to 20-9.

"I don't think we respected out opponent tonight and it showed with the way we didn't execute a lot of the little things today," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "We need to execute our system better if we want to be a championship team.

"It is nice to get another win and it gives us an opportunity to climb above .500 if we can win our series this weekend."

CSU pounded out 12 hits with Adam Heideman going 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI. Bobby Cash was the only other Viking with multiple hits, going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs as eight of the nine starters recorded at least one hit.

John Foco and Tom Carter drove in two runs apiece.

Dylan Henry worked six strong innings for CSU, giving up three runs on nine hits, while striking out six. Chris Bauman (1-0) picked up his first win of the season with 2.2 innings out of the bullpen, allowing just one hit.

Justin Corbett gave up two runs in just 0.1 innings of relief and took the loss (1-3). Starter Ryan Hartong lasted four innings, surrendering four runs on seven hits.

The Vikings got on the board first with four runs in the fourth inning. Bischof started things with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and came in with the first run of the game on a single by Josh Hungerman.

Cash followed with a perfectly executed hit-and-run as he slapped a pitch through the right side of the infield that was vacated by the second baseman who went to cover second with Hungerman running on the first pitch. After Cash moved to second on a wild pitch, both he and Hungerman came around to score on a double by Foco. Heideman followed with an RBI single to plate Foco and extend CSU's lead to 4-0.

However, Malone came back with three runs in the sixth to slice the lead to 4-3. Henry got two of the first three batters with strikeouts, which were sandwiched around a double from Chris Mandeville. But the Pioneers strung together four consecutive two-out singles before Henry struck out Ryan Baechel to end the inning.

Malone knotted the game at 4-4 in the seventh as Zac Barson led off with a triple and scored on a one-out single from Mandeville.

However, CSU responded with two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to seal the win.

After the first two batters reached in the seventh, Alex Kerins sacrificed them over to second and third. Bischof was intentionally walked, but Corbett's fourth ball sailed over the head of Benson, allowing Carter to come in from third with what proved to be the game winning run. Sam Clyde added an RBI single in the seventh, while Carter had a two-run single in the eighth.

CSU will return to action with a three-game series at Milwaukee on Friday and Saturday (April 11-12). The series opener is slated for 3:00 p.m. on Friday, while the two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 12:00 p.m.