HANOVER, Md. – The Coppin State baseball team improved on its most conference victories in a single season with a split of a MEAC doubleheader with Delaware State on Sunday afternoon at Joe Cannon Stadium. The Eagles, who won the opener, 12-8, before dropping the nightcap, 14-12, are now 17-20-1 overall and 16-4 in conference play. Coppin can clinch the Northern Division championship with one conference victory in its final four MEAC games of the year.
Prior to the game, CSU honored its five seniors who were playing in their final home games with the Eagles:
Palmer Powis,
Delvin McFadden,
Caleb Duhay,
Brett Helmbrecht and
Andres Santana. Between games, the Navy & Gold honored several baseball alumni members who were in attendance.
The senior trio of Helmbrecht, Duhay and Santana each came up big in the game one victory. Helmbrecht led the squad, going 3-for-4 with four RBI and a walk while Duhay drove in a pair of runs. Santana also drove in a run and had a base hit and two walks.
The future of the CSU offense also came through as freshman
Marcos Castillo had three hits and three RBI, classmate
Derek Lohr had another three hits and
Erik Crossman had a multi-hit and multi-RBI game.
On the mound,
Aaron Rea was very effective, allowing two earned runs on five hits in 7.0 innings. McFadden relieved Rea and retired a batter before
Corey Treyes pitched the final 1.2 innings to earn the win.
Coppin needed to rally from a 4-0 deficit in the game and cut the lead in half on RBI hits by Crossman and Helmbrecht in the fourth before erupting for seven runs in the seventh. The Eagles sent 12 batters to the plate in the frame as Duhay hit a two-run double to center field to tie the score before Crossman gave CSU its first lead at 5-4 with a single. Castillo followed Crossman with a two-run single before Helmbrecht and Santana added RBIs to make it a 9-4 game.
Castillo and Helmbrecht drove in runs in the eighth to make it a 12-4 lead. Delaware State, however, made it interesting with four runs in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate before Treyes fanned the final batter of the game.
After taking an early, 1-0 lead in the nightcap, CSU needed a big rally in game two as well, falling behind 10-3 after the DSU half of the third. The Eagles cut deep into the lead with five runs in their half of the inning.
In the fifth, CSU scored another four runs to take a 12-10 lead as Duhay gave it the lead with a bases-clearing triple to dead center field.
Nazier McIlwain then drove in Duhay with a sacrifice fly.
After a scoreless sixth inning for both teams, DSU scored four runs in the seventh and the Eagles came up empty in their final at bat.
Bradley Tuttle took the loss in relief of
Devin Rivera Ozuna for CSU, but pitched well, allowing four runs over 3.2 innings of work. McFadden retired the final two batters of the ninth for CSU.
Coppin will travel to our Nation's Capital on Wednesday, May 2, when it takes on George Washington University in a 6 pm first pitch at Barcroft Park in Arlington, Va.
