DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A pair of throwing errors helped lead to a seven-run fifth inning for North Carolina A&T who defeated Coppin State, 15-7, on Friday night in the MEAC Baseball Tournament at Sliwa Stadium. The North Division Champion Eagles will take on the winner of the Bethune-Cookman/Florida A&M matchup on Saturday, May 19 which takes place at 9:00 am.
After a seven-plus hour rain delay to start the game,
Caleb Duhay recorded a pair of doubles and drove in a run to once again lead the Coppin offense.
Derek Lohr had three hits while
Marcos Castillo added two more with two RBI.
Nazier McIlwain drove in a pair of runs, raising his total to 43 on the year which is the 7
th-most in school-history.
Already ahead, 3-2, the South Division champion Aggies started the fifth with back-to-back singles and a sacrifice bunt and got their first run of the frame on a single to left.
Andres Santana threw out the runner from second trying to score which held the deficit to just two runs. After a wild pitch, A&T singled and advanced on a throwing error which made it a 5-2 advantage. After a double made it four-run game, the Eagles committed another throwing error before the Aggies hit back-to-back homers off
Aaron Rea and relief pitcher
Delvin McFadden to make it a 10-2 score.
Coppin fought to get a pair of runs back in its half of the inning. Santana started the rally with a single and advanced to third on a pair of throwing errors. After
Corey Treyes drew a walk, Duhay went opposite field for a double to score Santana and move Treyes to third. McIlwain then grounded out but scored Treyes from third to cut the deficit to six.
CSU added another run in the sixth to make it a five-run game as Santana hit a sacrifice fly to left field. Scoring on the play was Castillo who singled to start the inning and reached third after
Brett Helmbrecht and
Carlos Alviarez drew two-straight walks.
The Aggies were able to get an unearned run off
Anthony Martinez in the seventh to make it an 11-5 game and added two more in the eighth before Treyes found the gap in right center for an RBI triple to drive in Alviarez.
Two more unearned runs came in to score for North Carolina A&T in the top of the ninth to make it a nine-run game.
Castillo drove in Lohr with a groundout in the ninth, but that was all that CSU would get in its final at bat.
Earlier in the game, the Eagles took a 1-0 lead after the first as Duhay doubled to left before McIlwain drove him in with a single. North Carolina A&T took its first lead of the game with two runs in the second before adding another in the third.
In the fourth, Castillo just missed a home run, drilling a shot off the wall in left. His base knock still went for two bases and drove in Lohr all of the way from first.
Rea took the loss for the Navy & Gold, allowing five earned runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings.
Anthony Martinez threw the final 3.2 innings for the Eagles, allowing just two earned runs on four hits while striking out a career-high five. Martinez' five strikeouts were as many as he had the entire season coming into the game.
