May 21, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

NILES, Ohio - Fourth-seeded Cleveland State's opening game in the 2008 Horizon League Championship went a little longer than expected as the Vikings fell to fifth-seeded Milwaukee, 10-7, in 14 innings at Eastwood Field.

It was the second longest game in tournament history, topped by a 1990 contest between St. Louis and Dayton that went 15 innings. In addition, it was the longest game in CSU history since a 14 inning contest at Youngstown State last season.

The loss drops CSU to 21-30 and sends the Vikings into the loser's bracket for an elimination game on Thursday (May 22) at 11:00 a.m. against third-seeded Youngstown State, a 3-2 loser to sixth-seeded Valparaiso in Wednesday's other game.

Milwaukee (22-34) moves into a winner's bracket game to face second-seeded Wright State on Thursday at 3:00 p.m.

"This was a great ballgame to be involved in and I am proud of how our guys rallied after falling behind early," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "Hungo rebounded from a rough start and kept us in the game and the bats came around as the game went on to get us back into it.

"Both teams had several chances to win the game in extra innings, but they were able to take advantage of a chance in the 14th. Our guys never quit and did a nice job coming back."

Bobby Cash finished 4-for-7 with a run, while Kyle Bischof and John Foco were each 3-for-6 as CSU outhit the Panthers, 18-14. John Brown, who did not start, finished 3-for-4 with two RBI.

Milwaukee plated four runs in the first inning, totaling five hits off Hungerman to jump out to an early lead. A homerun by Shawn Wozniak gave the Panthers a 5-0 lead in the third inning, but Hungerman settled down after that, retiring the next 19 batters he faced. The Panthers did not get another base runner until the ninth inning when Shaun Wegner drew a one-out walk.

With Hungerman mowing down the Panthers, the Vikings bats began to come alive as CSU scored a run in the third on an RBI double from Bischof and two more in the fourth on a Panther error and RBI groundout by Tom Carter that sliced CSU's deficit to 5-3.

The Vikings tied it up in the seventh on RBI singles by Josh Geric and Brown and took their first lead of the game (6-5) when Alex Kerins delivered a two-out RBI double to rightfield.

After Hungerman registered the first out of the ninth, he walked two consecutive batters to put runners on first and second for the Panthers. Hungerman was relived by Drew Fronczek after the second walk.

Fronczek got a groundball toward the middle, but a bad hop sent the ball off Tom Carter's glove at shortstop, allowing Wegner to score the tying run and putting runners on the corners.

John Sarcia followed with an RBI single to rightfield as the Panthers reclaimed a 7-6 lead. Fronczek got the final two outs of the inning and the Vikings responded with a single run in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI double from Brown to send the game into extra innings.

Both teams had multiple chances to score in the extra frames as Milwaukee had a runner of third with one out in the 11th. Andy Hetebrueg came on to pinch hit with a 1-0 count and it appeared that the Vikings were going to intentionally walk him to set up a double play ball.

However, the Panthers had a squeeze play on and Kraft was caught too far off third base for the second out of the inning.

In the 12th, UWM got its first two runners on. Nick Wichser attempted to bunt the runners over, but his bunt went right back to Fronczek who fired to third base for the force out.

With runners on first and second and one out, Kocks summoned southpaw Sam Suitca from the bullpen to face the left-handed hitting Wozniak. Suitca won the battle with a strikeout and then fanned Ben Long to end the threat.

CSU had a chance in the 12th, getting runners on first and second with one out, but Cash grounded into an inning ending double play.

Both teams had scoring chances in the 13th with UWM getting runners on second and third with no outs, but again, Suitca was up to the challenge, getting a strikeout and two flyouts to end the inning.

Bischof led off the bottom of the 13th with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Alex Kerins. After a Travis Miller flyout, Foco singled to leftfield, but Kocks had to hold Bischof at third as the ball was not hit deep enough. Geric then grounded out to first to end the inning.

After several botched chances in extra innings, the Panthers were finally able to take advantage in the 14th by scoring three runs, including a two-run double by Tim Patzman.

Adam Ferrell worked six innings for UWM to earn the win (3-4). He gave up just one run on three hits. Suitca (1-6) took the loss for the Vikings, giving up three runs on three hits. He did strike out three.

Both starting pitchers had good outings, but did not fare into the decision. Hungerman went 8.1 innings, allowing seven hits and seven runs (six earned) with four strikeouts.

UWM's Brad Lusti went 6.2 innings, surrendering five runs (three earned) on 12 hits with four strikeouts.