HANOVER, Md. – Aaron Rea was dominant on the mound striking out 13 batters over 7.2 innings to lead the Coppin State baseball team to a 2-1 victory over MEAC rival Norfolk State on Sunday afternoon at Joe Cannon Stadium. The MEAC North-leading Eagles are now 15-18-1 overall and a program-best 14-3 in conference play, breaking a 22-year old school-record for conference wins in a season. Head Coach
Sherman Reed now has 54 MEAC victories which matches a school-record as well.
A junior from Altamonte Springs, Fla., Rea set a career-high for strikeouts, allowing just one run on seven hits to pick up his fourth win of the season. Rea struck out the side in the second and seventh innings and fanned two each in the fourth, fifth and sixth and at one point struck out four in a row.
Corey Treyes relieved Rea with two outs and a runner on second in the eighth and retired all four batters he faced to pick up his fourth save of the season.
Offensively,
Andres Santana collected three base hits from the leadoff position while
Caleb Duhay and
Nazier McIlwain turned in RBIs. Coppin went up 1-0 on a sacrifice fly by McIlwain in the bottom of the first to score Santana from third. Santana had singled, advanced to second on a Treyes free pass before getting ninety feet away on a sac bunt by Duhay.
Duhay later recorded a sacrifice fly of his own in the fifth to give the Eagles a two-run lead and that was all that Rea would need. Scoring on Duhay's fly ball was
Carlos Alviarez who had singled and got to third after a single by Santana and a sac bunt by Treyes.
On Deck: Coppin will travel to face Lehigh on Wednesday, April 25 for a 3 pm first pitch followed by a three-game series at Joe Cannon Stadium on April 28-29. Saturday's doubleheader is set for 12 pm which is also Alumni Day. Senior Day on Sunday is also slated for 12 pm.
