BALTIMORE – Coppin State's softball team welcomed ACC member Syracuse to the Charm City for a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon and battled the Orange closely but dropped a pair of games at the CSU Softball Complex. The Eagles fell in the opener, 7-3, before errors helped Syracuse to a 13-3 win in the nightcap.
In game one,
Avianna Peterson reached base all three times as she slugged her first career home run and drew a pair of walks while scoring two of Coppin's three runs.
Shawnee Ronyak had a pair of hits while scoring a run and driving in another.
Makayla Caballero had a base hit while adding a walk while
Melanie Aguilera and
Desiree Carrizosa also had base hits.
Vanessa Carrizosa allowed just five earned runs in a complete game loss while striking out six.
Vanessa Carrizosa struck out the first two Orange batters of the game as she got a 1-2-3 inning to start the game before Syracuse got an unearned run off her in the second to take a 1-0 lead.
Peterson connected for a home run to left field to tie the score at 1-1 before Syracuse scored three runs in the third. Ronyak got one of the runs back in the fourth with an RBI single to score Peterson and the Eagles remained in striking distance at 4-2 as Carrizosa blanked Syracuse the next two innings.
Syracuse added three insurance runs in the seventh with four hits while taking advantage of a CSU error to extend the lead to 7-2. The Eagles responded by getting the first three batters on base with a pair of singles sandwiching a walk. A groundout by
Vanessa Carrizosa plated Ronyak from third with one out but Coppin was unable to get any more runs across.
The Orange started game two with a pair of runs in the first before three errors led to a ten-run third inning. Coppin got on the board with three runs in the fourth as Ronyak cleared the bases with a three-run double to left, scoring
Brooke Caballero, Peterson, and Aguilera. Caballero and Peterson reached on singles earlier in the frame before Aguilera was hit by a pitch.
Syracuse added another insurance run in its final at-bat as Ronyak proved to be highly effective in relief of
Kayleigh Reome. Ronyak gave up just one run on five hits over the final 2.2 innings.
The Eagles open MEAC play with a three-game series at Morgan State on March 19-20. Saturday's doubleheader is set for 1 pm followed by a 12 pm single game on Sunday.
