GLEN BURNIE, Md. – Coppin State's baseball team was not able to hold on to a 5-0 first inning lead as it fell to New Jersey Institute of Technology, 8-7, on Tuesday afternoon at Bachman Sports Complex. The Eagles rallied in the final innings and threatened in the ninth but came up just short.
After starting pitcher
Bradley Tuttle held NJIT scoreless in the first, the Eagles got out to the early lead with five runs on four hits in their half of the frame.
Andres Santana led off with a walk and stole second and reached third on
Caleb Duhay's single through the left side. After Duhay stole second,
Marcos Castillo drove in Santana with a groundout to short and
Nazier McIlwain drove in Duhay with a single.
A wild pitch and a single by
Derek Lohr prompted a pitching change and a walk was issued to
Drew Thomas to load the bases.
Erik Crossman reached on a fielder's choice that put Coppin up, 3-0, and following another walk,
Corey Treyes blistered a single to right field, scoring both Lohr and Crossman for the fourth and fifth runs of the game.
NJIT got a run back in the second and another in the third before
Devin Rivera Ozuna came in to retire the final batter of the third. The Highlanders brought in Brett Lubreski to start the third inning and he pitched four scoreless innings to get the victory for NJIT.
The Highlanders cut the lead to one with a run in the fourth before erupting for four runs in the sixth to take an 8-5 lead.
The Eagles cut into NJIT's lead in the seventh with a two-out, two-run double by Crossman to the gap in left center. Scoring on the play was
Allen Saar who drew a pinch-hit walk, and
Drew Thomas who reached on an error.
With NJIT clinging to an 8-7 lead, Rivera Ozuna retired the side in order in the eighth in his final inning of work before
Quinn Gleed threw a scoreless ninth to keep the game in reach.
Coppin threatened in its final at bat, putting the go-ahead run on base with a McIlwain single and
Drew Thomas getting plunked with one out. However the Eagles could not capitalize as the game ended on a 6-4-3 double play.
Duhay, McIlwain and Lohr each had two hits for Coppin while Crossman drove in three runs and Treyes with two.
Coppin returns to the diamond on Wednesday, March 14 at Georgetown for a 3 pm single game.
