BALTIMORE - The Coppin State baseball team makes its return to the 2016 MEAC Baseball Championships for the first time since 2014. The Eagles come into the postseason as the third seed in the Northern Division of the MEAC standings with an 8-16 conference record.
CSU closed the season with an uplifting 6-5 road victory over the Spiders of the University of Richmond on Wednesday, May 11.
"It was truly a big win for us against a talented Atlantic-10 (conference) program," said
Sherman Reed, sixth year Head Coach of the Coppin State baseball team. "We told the guys before the game that this is our last impression before the MEAC Championships to see where we are as a team. And those guys came out confident, focused and played a flawless game in our final tune up before the conference tournament."
Coach Reed and his staff have stuck to the philosophy of having no freshmen on the team.
"We like to call them First-Year guys," Reed said with a grin.
The mixture of experience and youth has boasted well for the 2016 Eagles Baseball team.
"We challenged all of our players to play and approach each game with a purpose and buckle down and always be ready to produce when your number is called," said Reed.
The Eagles depth has really shined bright with injuries to key players down the stretch of conference play.
When senior
John Kraft went down, seniors
Colin Dower and
George Dragon along with junior
Bryant Miranda all got hot and stepped up big offensively for Coppin State.
Kraft led the team with 10 home runs, which is tied for second in the MEAC. Kraft also led the Eagles with 83 total bases, .741 slugging percentage and a .354 batting average, sixth in the MEAC through 31 games this season. He earned MEAC Baseball Player of Week honors (Apr. 04) and College Sports Madness MEAC Baseball Player of the Week (Apr. 05).
Dragon leads the team in walks (29), which is fifth in the MEAC and has recorded a team leading 32 RBIs. He is second on the team with 45 hits and finished the regular season with 28 runs scored and three home runs. He has 12 multi-hit games and 10 multi-RBI performances on the year.
Miranda is tied for seventh in the MEAC with his team-leading 57 hits. He is also tied for fifth in the MEAC with 44 runs scored, which also leads the Eagles. Miranda is 10th in the conference with a .429 on-base percentage and leads the team with 95 assists. He also leads the Eagles with 12 stolen bases.
Dower has totaled 33 hits, 24 runs scored, 12 RBIs, nine stolen bases and 35 total bases. He has 109 put outs and 88 assists on the diamond defensively for Coppin. Dower picked up a career-best four hits against Norfolk State (Apr. 3).
An injury to the soul of the infield, freshman
Jamar Criss, propelled freshmen
Nazier McILwain,
Malik White and
John O'Dwyer into big roles with changes to the lineup and all of those "First-Year Guys" answered the call.
Criss was second on the team with four homers and leads the team with 233 putouts defensively. Criss is eighth in the MEAC with a .488 slugging percentage and is ninth in the conference with a .336 batting average.
McILwain has tallied 29 hits, scored 17 runs, punched in 17 RBIs with one home run and recorded 103 put outs at first base replacing Criss. McILwain also enjoyed a 12 game hit and reached base streak this season. He has four multi-hit games and four multi-RBI performances.
White has stepped up defensively for Coppin with 118 put outs with 17 assists at catcher. White has 17 hits, 10 runs scored, 19 total bases and 3 RBIs. White has the lowest strikeout rate on the Eagles this season.
J. O'Dwyer has shown his versatility all season for Coppin State. He has registered 26 hits, 12 runs scored and 15 RBIs. He has 146 put outs and 23 assists defensively. J. O'Dwyer blasted his first homer of the season on Wednesday against Richmond.
The first-year pitching trio of freshmen
Krystian Negron,
Devin Sutorius and
Aaron Rea are all in the top 10 in the MEAC in innings pitched.
Negron leads the team with 71.1 innings tossed, ranking third in the MEAC. He has tallied 56 strikeouts (7.07 so/g), eighth in the MEAC. He is tied for fifth in the MEAC with two complete games. Negron was named MEAC Rookie of the Week (Mar. 21) and MEAC Pitcher of the Week (Mar. 28) in back-to-back weeks. He was also named College Sports Madness MEAC Baseball Player of the Week (Mar. 22).
Sutorius is tied for the team lead with four wins on the season. He is sixth in the MEAC with 66.1 innings pitched with 45 strikeouts. Sutorius leads the Eagles with 16 appearances at the mound.
Rea leads the MEAC making 13 starts with a league best five complete games. He is ninth in the MEAC throwing 64.0 innings with 47 strikeouts, second on the Eagles. Rea pitched a complete game allowing no runs in seven innings against UMES (Apr. 30) and posted a team-season high nine strikeouts vs. Delaware State (Mar. 26).
Coach Reed and his staff believes that the team's confidence and focus is the highest it's been all season and the experience of playing in the upcoming MEAC Baseball Tournament will go a long way for the development of his first-year players.
"They have changed how they approach each game," Reed said. "The energy around the team is very high, they have really buckled down and put their focus into paying attention to the details of the game."
But the Eagles are not just satisfied making it to the postseason tournament. They are preparing themselves to make a run for the MEAC championship crown.
Coppin State will likely face the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats in the opening round of the MEAC Tournament, a team currently sitting second in the Southern Division of the MEAC Standings. But Coach
Sherman Reed made it clear that his team is ready to play no matter the opponent.
"Our pitchers need to force the issue by throwing strikes, pitching into contact and give our defense a chance to some make plays," Reed said. "This is the best hitting offense we've put together in a while. We just need to stay consistent and stay aggressive at the plate."
Coppin State will travel to Salisbury, MD for a postseason run at the 2016 MEAC Baseball Championship from May 19-22 at Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, Md.
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