COLUMBIA, Md. – Coppin State's baseball team dropped a pair of MEAC games to Delaware State on Sunday afternoon at Blandair Park with the Hornets taking the opener, 7-0, before winning game two, 12-4. Despite the losses, the Eagles remain in first place in the MEAC with a 17-13 mark in league play, leading the Hornets by one game and Maryland Eastern Shore by two with four to play.
Prior to the doubleheader, CSU honored its four seniors:
Wellington Balsley, Marcos Castillo, Matt Day and
Grant Williams.
The Eagles only mustered three base hits in game one with Castillo recording one while also drawing a walk.
Tyler Lloyd connected on a double that just missed going out and
Josh Hankins also had a base hit.
Mike Dorcean also drew a pair of walks.
Marcos Herrand took the loss, allowing seven runs in 4.2 innings while striking out five.
John Neeld finished the game, striking out two over 2.1 scoreless innings.
Herrand got off to a strong start, forcing a groundball double play in the first before DSU scored its first run in the second. After a 1-2-3 third inning, the Hornets got four in the fourth and two more in the sixth before Neeld shut the door on the visitors.
In game two, DSU got a run in the first before
Jordan Hamberg got a 1-2-3 second inning. Coppin had a couple base-running blunders in the second and three Eagles errors helped the Hornets score seven runs in the third to make it an 8-0 game.
Coppin got a run apiece in the next three innings on RBI by
Sebastien Sarabia,
Matt Day and
Brian Nicolas to cut the deficit to 8-3 before the Hornets plated two in the sixth and seventh innings.
Toran Smith, who had a pinch-hit triple to start the seventh, later scored on a wild pitch, before the final out was recorded.
Nicolas and Day both had two hits in the nightcap while Hamberg had a hit and drew a pair of walks. Lloyd and
Corey Miley also reached base safely twice in the second game.
Hamberg received the loss, allowing two earned runs in 2.2 innings while striking out four.
Tyler Nichol threw two scoreless innings before
Rashad Ruff was charged with two earned runs over 1.1 innings.
Johan Freudenburg also gave up two runs in his lone inning of work.
The Eagles close out the regular season at Norfolk State on May 12-14 for a four-game series prior to the MEAC Tournament, also in Norfolk, Va., on May 18-21.
