JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Coppin State's offense collected 12 hits and had four players with multi-hit efforts during a 10-7 non-conference baseball loss to Jacksonville at Sessions Stadium Sunday afternoon.
In its last two games, Coppin State has produced 22 hits. The Eagles had consecutive double-digit hitting contests, a sure sign that the Eagle offense is in mid-season form. Leading Coppin State in Sunday's series finale was
Lance Montano,
George Dragon, Jack Kraft and
Jonathan Calvin, all of whom had two hits each.
During the three-game series, Coppin State's leaders were
Randal Mendez and Kraft, each of whom hit over .400 and combined for 10 hits. Montano doubled and drove in a pair of runs against Jacksonville.
Colin Dower, who also doubled Sunday, had a .333 average over the weekend for the Eagles.
"The goal this weekend was just to get on the field against a good Jacksonville team and play ball," Coppin State head baseball coach
Sherman Reed said. "Our hitters have done a great job at buying into coach (Geoff) Kimmel's hitting philosophy as evident by the 27 hits recorded against a good Jacksonville pitching staff."
Kraft and
Randal Mendez teamed up to get Coppin State off to a quick start against the Dolphins. Kraft singled with one out and stole second base. He scored on Mendez's single to give Coppin State a 1-0 lead. Kraft's RBI groundout in the fifth inning scored Calvin and pulled the Eagles to within 3-2 midway through the game.
Montano's two-run bases loaded double to leftfield highlighted Coppin State's five-run eighth inning. Kraft also drove in his second run of the contest with a RBI single. The Eagles took advantage of four walks in the inning. In the eighth inning, Coppin State's first four batters reached base.
Coppin State applied plenty of pressure on Jacksonville's pitching staff throughout the game as it had baserunners in seven of the nine innings.
"We purposely simplified things to have everyone get their feet wet," Reed said. "Hitting will prove to be one of this year's team strengths. All the pitchers competed well considering we haven't had the opportunity to pitch to live batters in game situations because of the weather. We came out of the series healthy and I remain very confident that if we execute our game plan and remain focused, we'll be lining up with a lot of postgame congratulatory handshakes."
The Eagles continue their season-opening seven-game road trip by visiting Navy Wednesday afternoon beginning at 2:00 p.m.
