Tess Sito, of Elyria, has reached yet another milestone.

In just her freshman year at Cleveland State, she has added another accolade as she was named to the All-Midwest Region Second Team by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, released Monday.

"I’m happy with my individual success, but I definitely wish we would’ve made it to that next level and made it to the tournament," said Sito, whose team was eliminated by No. 2 seed Wright State in the Horizon League Championship last week. "I’m not too worried about what I can do individually, as long as I can help the team out."

Sito, who earlier this month was named both the Horizon League Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, set records for runs scored (51), hits (74), home runs (18), slugging percentage (.773) and on-base percentage (.495). She is also second all-time in stolen bases (39) and third in batting average (.409), RBIs (45) and walks (29).

Although Sito basically re-wrote the CSU single-season record book, she remains focused on what she wants to do to be a better player and help her team.

"I definitely want to become a better fielder for next year," Sito said. "I wasn’t too good at shortstop this year. I made a lot of errors, but hopefully I’ll work on that this summer, along with working on my pitching."

Sito ranked in the top 40 nationally in six stat categories and started the season with an 18-game hitting streak, which is also a school record. She led the league in nine of the 12 major offensive statistics.

"Tess had a phenomenal freshman season but she has barely begun to achieve all that she is capable of," Cleveland State softball coach and Elyria-native Angie Nicholson said through a press release. "She is a very special player and I look forward to seeing how much better she can become in the next three years."

Cleveland State missed a berth to the NCAA Division I National Tournament by losing the Horizon League title game to Wright State. Sito only had two hits in her last 14 at-bats.

"Hopefully next season, I’ll come out strong and stay strong throughout the year," Sito said. "Everyone has slumps, but this year I was really mad, because I didn’t do as well as I wanted to in the tournament when it really counted. I’ll work a lot in the summer and hopefully I’ll be better than I was last year. Obviously you always want to be better than you were the year before."

The Vikings record-setting season ended with an impressive 44-15 record, which was the sixth time in eight years that Cleveland State played in the title game, last winning the championship in 2009. Nicholson has played a big part in Sito’s success at the college level.

"Angie (Nicholson) is awesome," Sito said. "You can talk to her whenever. Whenever you have a problem, she’s like another mom at college. She knows everything about hitting, she knows everything about fielding and she gives us little tricks here and there to do. She’s great. Everything about her is awesome. I just love her. She’s just really always there for us and that’s the main thing. And we had a lot of fun, and that’s the most important thing too."

For her high school career at Elyria, Sito went 75-9 on the mound with 814 strikeouts in 531 innings pitched. Her senior year, she helped lead the Pioneers to a state championship after losing the state championship game three years prior. At the plate, she batted .470 with 107 RBIs and 143 runs scored in her career. She also stole 46 bases in 48 attempts.

"(College softball) is a lot quicker," Sito said. "When I went back to watch Elyria, everyone is bigger and stronger in college. In high school, everything seems slower, while college is quick paced and you got to be ready all the time."

swalker@MorningJournal.com

The No. 2 seed Wright State defeated Cleveland State, 8-3 and 6-3, on Saturday to claim the Horizon League Softball Championship.

The Vikings record-setting season ends with an impressive 44-15 record. This was the sixth time in eight years that Cleveland State played in the title game, winning the championship in 2009.

"This was a very tough day for us," CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said on the team's website. "I felt like we were out of sync offensively during the tournament and it really hurt us today.

"We’ve had the ability to battle back and overcome deficits all season long, but today we just didn’t have it. Amanda (Macenko) was throwing well, but Wright State is a great offensive team and they were hitting everything she threw.

The day started with CSU dropping an 8-3 decision in the first meeting with the Raiders. The Vikings jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Lia Gordon executed a well-placed bunt, sending home Keystone's Jessica Burt. Katelyn Ciminelli provided the second run as Amy Powell grounded out to the WSU shortstop for the RBI.

Cleveland State took little time regaining the lead as Horizon League Player of the Year Tess Sito, of Elyria, jacked a solo homer to right center, her 18th of season, yielding a 3-2 score.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Elyria's Tess Sito had an amazing freshman season playing softball at Cleveland State University.

Sito was honored for her outstanding season this week as the Horizon League's Player of the Year. It is the first time a freshman has received the accolade in 13 years.

Sito was also named the league's newcomer of the year, along with a All-Horizon League First Team selection and a member of the league's All-Newcomers team.

Sito finished the season with 18 home runs, a school best, along with other school records. She broke the single-season marks for hits (67) and runs scored (37). She is also second in school history in stolen bases, walks and RBIs.

Sito finished among the Top 20 players nationally in four categories and among the Top 30 in two others.

Keystone's Jessica Burt was named an All-Horizon Second Team selection.

CSU head coach Angie Nicholson also nabbed Horizon League's Coach of the Year award for their record-setting 44-15 overall record.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

Elyria’s Megan Bashak had three hits and drove in a pair of runs to lead Cleveland State over Valparaiso, 5-1, completing a weekend sweep on Sunday afternoon at Viking Field in Cleveland.

The win allowed CSU to end the regular season with a 42-13 record and in first place in the Horizon League with a 22-2 record. It is the most wins ever by the Vikings, also setting a league record for conference victories in a season (old record was 17 by CSU last year).

Cleveland State will host the Horizon League Championship starting Thursday at Viking Field, entering the tourney as the No. 1.

"We came out ready to play all weekend and it showed on the field," Elyria native and CSU head coach Angie Nicholson said on the team’s website. "Today's game didn't mean anything in the conference race but our kids have a lot of pride and they wanted to show that they are the best team in the conference.

"We hit the ball really hard today and found the gaps. I don't like that we left nine runners on base, but that shows how many opportunities we had today."

CSU got its second run in the fourth when Bashak led off with a double, went to third on a fly ball by Keystone’s Jessica Burt and scored on a single by Elyria’s Tess Sito.

The Vikings will now have off until Thursday when they open the defense of their Horizon League Championship title when they play the winner of No. 4 Valparaiso vs. No. 5 Green Bay game beginning at 1:30 p.m. at Viking Field.

For the season, Sito and Burt are 1-2 in hitting. Sito is batting .436 (72-for-165) with nine doubles, a triple, 17 home runs and 44 RBIs. The home runs are most ever by a freshman at CSU. Burt is batting .333 (60-for-180) with 16 doubles, four triples, two home runs and 26 RBIs. Sito and Burt are also 1-2 in steals (Sito-39, Burt-28).

Bashak is batting .244 (29-for-119) with six doubles, a triple, three home runs and 22 RBIs. Elyria's Andrea Nagy is also on the team. She has made nine appearance, including seven starts. She is batting . 211 (4-for-19) with a double, two home runs and four RBIs.

swalker@MorningJournal.com

PENDLETON, Indiana - Angie Nicholson, an Elyria native who coaches Cleveland State’s softball team, led the Vikings to their first-ever Horizon League Championship, defeating the University of Illinois-Chicago, 4-2 on Sunday.

With the title, CSU earns the Horizon's League automatic bid into the NCAA Championships and will play Notre Dame (41-15) in an opening round game of the Michigan Regional on Friday.
The Vikings have won 22 of their last 26 games and currently hold a 35-16 record.

"One of our team goals this season was to win the Horizon League title and earn an NCAA bid,“ Nicholson said through a press release. “Now that we have achieved that, it is time to raise our sights a lot higher and go to Ann Arbor this week ready to play and advance … From the top of the lineup to the bottom, you can find a difference making effort from everybody. That's what it takes to be a champion."

Elyria’s Andrea Nagy preserved the championship win with a diving catch to end the game.

"That was the play of the game," Nicholson said. "If that ball gets down, it would probably go all the way to the wall and tie the game, but Andrea got a great jump on it and was able to sprawl out and make the catch."

This was the fifth time in the last seven years that the Vikings advanced to the title game, but CSU had failed to win a title. The only tournament title in CSU history came when the Vikings claimed the Midwestern Collegiate Conference title in 1997.

Nicholson (formerly McCall), who graduated from CSU in 2000, took over as head coach in the fall of 2006 and is the first head coach to lead CSU to back-to-back 30-win seasons. She was also named the Horizon League's co-Coach of the Year last season.

Nagy, a sophomore, has played in 44 games and has 19 starts. She is batting .250 with seven doubles, two home runs, 11 RBIs and 19 runs scored.

Elyria’s Megan Bashak, a freshman, has played in 33 games with 31 starts. She’s batting .340 with nine doubles, three home runs, 19 RBIs and 19 runs scored.

Keystone’s Jessica Burt started two games and went 2-for-4 (.500) with an RBI and a run, before a season-ending knee injury. Last year as a sophomore, she started all 49 games and hit .294 with 40 hits, six doubles, four triples, three home runs, 19 RBIs and 13 stolen bases.

Another Elyria native that will be joining the Vikings next season is Tess Sito, who was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Ohio last year. Sito is having another impressive season this year after going 27-2 with a 0.22 ERA last season. She was also a second team Louisville Slugger NFCA All-America choice, a two-time first team All-Ohio selection and a three-time All-Northeast Ohio Conference selection. And don’t forget the three Ohio State Championships she has led the Pioneers to.

"Tess is simply one of the best pitchers in the country," Nicholson said. "She throws hard with good location and will become even better once she learns the college game."

swalker@MorningJournal.com