May 26, 2004

Sixteen-Hit Barrage Leads Cleveland State Past Detroit, 11-6

    Niles, Ohio -- The Cleveland State baseball team pounded out 16 hits and scored in every inning but the first to advance to the second round of the 2004 Horizon League Championship with an 11-6 decision over Detroit on Wednesday afternoon at Eastwood Field.
    Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Vikings plated four runs on five hits to claim a 7-4 advantage. With one out, Cory Rojeck, who went 3-for-4, Doug Bosozzi and Dominic Erney laced consecutive singles to knot the contest at 4-4. After Bosozzi advanced to third on a fly out, the Vikings took the lead for good on Gary Ball's single to right field that plated Bosozzi and gave the Vikings 5-4 advantage. Ben Smith drove in Erney and Ball with a double to extend the CSU lead to 7-4.
    CSU's Steve Chinn cushioned the Viking advantage to 8-4 after a solo blast in the bottom of the sixth inning.
    Detroit sliced the Viking lead to two runs, 8-6, after plating to runs in the top of the seventh, but Cleveland State added an insurance run in the bottom half of the stanza and two more in the bottom of the eighth inning.
    Detroit's Tim Poley led the Titans with a 4-for-5 performance with a home run, three runs scored and four runs batted in.
    Cleveland State advances to play the winner of the No. 2 Butler/No. 7 Youngstown State game on Friday at 10:30 a.m. while Detroit faces Wright State on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.