NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State's baseball team scored nine unanswered runs to defeat Norfolk State, 9-8, on Saturday to complete a doubleheader sweep of the Spartans. The North Division Champion Eagles now stand at 19-21-1 overall and 18-4 in MEAC play.
Sunday's series finale against the Spartans has been cancelled due to rain and Coppin will return to the diamond on Wednesday, May 9 when it travels to UMBC for a 3 pm start. The regular season finale is the following day at MEAC rival Delaware State at 3 pm.
Norfolk got to starting pitcher
Aaron Rea early with five runs in the second and two more in the third to take a 7-0 lead. Rea then settled down and allowed just one hit over his final two innings before handing the ball to closer
Corey Treyes.
The Eagles finally got on the board with three runs in the fourth on RBIs by
Erik Crossman and
Carlos Alviarez.
Nazier McIlwain doubled to start the inning and back-to-back walks to
Derek Lohr and
Marcos Castillo loaded the bases for Crossman who singled to left center, scoring McIlwain and Lohr. After a fly out, Alviarez hit a long fly ball which was deep enough to score Castillo.
A 1-2-3 fourth inning for Rea included a pair of strikeouts and Coppin responded with four runs on five hits in the fifth to tie the score.
Andres Santana led off the frame with a double and Treyes drove of him in with a two-base knock of his own. A single by
Caleb Duhay allowed Treyes to score, cutting the lead to just 7-5.
NSU then made a pitching change and McIlwain greeted him with a single and Lohr laid down a sacrifice bunt to put two runners into scoring position. A wild pitch allowed Duhay to score from third and
Brett Helmbrecht tied the score with a bunt single to third base.
McIlwain put Coppin on top, 8-7 in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to score Treyes who struck out two batters in the sixth.
Marcos Castillo led off the seventh inning with a huge solo home run down the left field line, his second rountripper of the season. The insurance run proved to be necessary as Norfolk scored an unearned run in the seventh, but Treyes got the final batter to fly out, recording his MEAC-leading seventh save of the season and second of the day.
McIlwain and Duhay both had a pair of hits in the nighthcap as every Eagles started collected at least one hit.
Rea improved to 6-4 on the year and 6-0 in conference games with the win, allowing six earned runs over five innings. Treyes struck out a pair over the final two innings.
