May 22, 2008

Final Stats

Contact: Greg Murphy

NILES, Ohio - Fourth-seeded Cleveland State broke open a one-run lead with five runs in the top of the ninth as the Vikings defeated Youngstown State, 10-4, in an elimination game at the 2008 Horizon League Championship on Thursday at Eastwood Field.

It was the third straight season that these two teams were meeting in an elimination game with CSU knocking out the Penguins in 2006 and YSU returning the favor last season.

The victory sends Cleveland State (22-30) into an 11:00 a.m. elimination game on Friday against second-seeded Wright State, a 20-3 loser to fifth-seeded Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon.

The winner of that game will play again at 3:00 p.m. on Friday against sixth-seeded Valparaiso in another elimination game. The Crusaders fell to top-seeded UIC, 8-5, in Thursday's final game to fall into the loser's bracket.

UIC will play fifth-seeded Milwaukee on Friday at 7:00 p.m. for a berth in the championship.

YSU, the third seed and host of the tournament, concludes its season with a 23-33 record.

"They gave us some opportunities early on and we took advantage of them to get an early lead," head coach Kevin Kocks said. "And after they came back to within one run, we got the bats going and really broke the game open. I saw us mature as a team today and really keep our mental toughness.

"Brian Long gave us another great outing and saved us some arms for tomorrow. He really threw the ball well and never let them string together their hits to start a big inning. We are going to take things one pitch at a time now and see what happens."

YSU did score first, using an unearned run in the third to take a 1-0 lead. However, the Vikings came right back with three runs in the fourth, but did so courtesy of just one hit.

Following a pair of walks to start the inning, Adam Heideman laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners to second and third. Another walk loaded the bases before John Brown drew the fourth walk of the inning for an RBI. Josh Geric followed with an RBI groundout and Tom Carter extended the inning with an RBI single to give CSU a 3-1 advantage.

CSU added another run in the sixth, this time without the aid of a hit. Instead, Brown was hit by a pitch with one out, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Carter flyout and scored on a wild pitch.

A John Foco RBI single extended CSU's lead to 5-1 in the seventh, but the Penguins finally got their bats going as Mike Turjanica delivered a solo homerun in the seventh and Erich Diedrich added a two-run shot in the eighth to slice the YSU deficit to 5-4.

However, the Vikings rebounded in a big way, scoring five runs in the ninth to seal the win. All the damage was done with two outs as the first two batters were retired to start the inning, but CSU wound up sending nine batters to the plate and recorded five hits in the inning.

Foco, Brown and Carter had RBI singles, while Geric came through with an RBI double. All four players finished with two RBI apiece, while Carter went 3-for-5 at the plate.

Brian Long gave the Vikings their second straight solid outing on the mound, lasting 7.2 innings. He gave up four runs (three earned) on 11 hits and struck out three as the junior improved to 4-5 this season.

Vasili Pahoulis registered the final four outs of the game to earn his fourth save of the season. Pahoulis was summoned from the bullpen with two outs in the eighth and the tying run on first base, but was able to strike out pinch hitter C.J. Morris on just three pitches.

Diedrich finished 2-for-4 with three RBI for the Penguins. Starter Chuck Schiffhauer worked five innings, allowing three unearned runs on five hits. He struck out three, but was hurt by five walks.

Four YSU relief pitchers combined to give up seven runs on six hits in four innings of work.