Wright State Drops Cleveland State in Opener of Horizon League Baseball Championship

May 25, 2005

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Chris Snyder threw a complete game and was helped out by three double plays as fourth-seed Wright State University rolled to a 5-2 victory over fifth-seed Cleveland State University Wednesday in the first game of the 2005 Horizon League Baseball Championship at Victory Field.


After giving up back-to-back hits to open the game, Snyder (6-6) settled in, as the Raiders (25-31) won their first League tournament game since 2000, ending an eight-game losing streak. The 6-foot-5 junior struck out five and scattered nine hits while allowing only one run in the final eight innings.


Wright State tied the game in the third and took the lead in the fourth when Paul Majestic singled to right to score Bryan Vickers. The Vikings (13-35) knotted the game again in the fifth when Snyder hit Ben Smith, who moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Geric and scored on a single to center by Bobby Cash.


The Raiders then took the lead for good in the bottom of the inning when Vickers brought home Ross Oeder with two outs with a single to right. Wright State added a pair of unearned runs in the seventh when Vikings starter Matt Kaltenbach threw wide of first on a sacrifice bunt by Brendan Rubenstein, allowing Justin Wilson and Oeder to score.


Kaltenbach (5-7) tossed a complete game with five strikeouts and only two earned runs in the losing effort.


Cleveland State took the early lead when Steve Chinn led off the game with a double down the right field line and Mike Ochwat followed with a single to center. The Vikings had runners on first and second with one out, but the Raiders turned their first of their three double plays to end the inning


Chinn and Cash each had two hits for the Vikings, while Majestic was the only Wright State player with more than one hit.


Cleveland State will play the loser of Wednesday's second game between third-seed University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and sixth-seed Butler University in Thursday's first elimination game at 11 a.m. Indianapolis local time. Wright State will face either second-seed Youngstown State University or top-seed University of Illinois at Chicago Thursday.

Game 1123456789RHE#5 Cleveland  State100010000--292#4 Wright  State00111020x--570

WP-Chris Snyder (6-6)LP-Matt Kaltenbach (5-7)Time-2:21