BALTIMORE, Md. – Coppin State's softball team split a pair of games in its home opening Eagles Classic with a 7-6 win over Fairleigh Dickinson before falling to Rider, 24-3. The Eagles now stand at 1-5 on the year.
Nia Bowe tripled twice, drove in a pair of runs and scored the game-winner against the Knights in Coppin's opener.
Megan Narvaez,
Patricia Soria and
Nicole Ullman also had multi-hit efforts against FDU.
Madison Didion had a great outing in the circle for the Eagles, striking out eight in a complete game victory.
Fairleigh Dickinson got on the board first with a pair of runs in the third before Coppin cut the lead in half in its half of the inning. Narvaez reached on a fielder's chice before advancing on
Cloe' Ochoa's sacrifice bunt and scoring on Soria's single up the middle.
Bowe drove in the Eagles' second run with triple to right center, scoring
Kylie Flagler who pinch ran for
Megan Brogden who drew a walk. Bowe then came home on Ullman's RBI single, tying the score at three.
Both teams scored in the fifth as the Knights took a 4-3 lead on a sac fly before
Cayla Brown's RBI single in the bottom half.
The Knights once again took the lead with a run each in the fifth and sixth before Coppin won in its final at bat. Soria doubled to the gap in right center to start the inning and advanced on Brown's groundout. Brogden singled home Soria and
Hatika James came in to pinch run before scoring on Bowe's second triple of the game. Following Ullman's free pass,
Dakota Gartrell pinch hit for
Camille Ochoa. Gartrell hit a ground ball to third base and Bowe avoided the tag to give Coppin its first victory of the season.
The second game against Rider was not kind to the Eagles, who got behind 3-0 in the first before getting two across in their half of the inning. Bowe recorded an RBI single to score Soria and Brown also came in to score because of an error.
The Broncs then erupted for 12 runs on seven hits in the second inning and they also got five in the fourth and four in the fifth to seal the win. The other bright spot for Coppin was a solo home run by Ullman in the fourth inning.
Brogden took the loss for the Eagles, allowing seven runs in 1.1 innings. All eight of
Dakota Gartrell's runs were unearned over 0.2 innings before
Cloe' Ochoa pitched the final three innings, allowing eight runs.
Coppin will take on Saint Peter's University at 1:30 pm on Sunday, March 4 in the final day of the Eagles Classic.
