HANOVER, Md. – Jordan Hamberg hit his second home run in as many days to open the season to lead the Coppin State's baseball team to a 14-7 victory over Saint Peter's on Saturday afternoon at Joe Cannon Stadium.
A junior from South Plainfield, N.J., Hamberg finished the day 2-for-4 with three runs scored, three RBI and a pair of walks, with his three-run home run in the second inning being the big blow. Hamberg now has ten career home runs.
Sebastien Sarabia had a team-high three hits and an RBI while
Brian Nicolas and
Corey Miley also had multi-hit performances.
Brody Black homered in his first career start at Coppin, driving in two runs and scoring a team-high four.
Sam Nieves and
Mike Dorcean also drove in a pair of runs apiece.
On the mound,
Marcos Herrand got the victory, allowing just three runs on six hits over the first 6.0 innings while striking out four.
Christian Pareja went the next two-thirds of an inning before being relieved for
Clay Thompson.
Tyler Nichol finished the seventh and eighth innings without allowing a run and
Rashad Ruff struck out a pair in the ninth.
Josh Hankins gave Coppin the early 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly in the second, driving in Nieves who was hit by a pitch, stole second and advanced on a fielding error. After
Brett Curran drew a walk, Hamberg cleared the bases with a three-run shot over the fence in right field. Sarabia followed right up with a double before being stranded.
After Herrand threw a 1-2-3 third, Black crushed a solo home run to give Coppin a 5-0 lead.
Saint Peter's closed to within, 5-3 in the fourth and added another run in the fifth to pull within a run.
Coppin extended its lead with three runs in the fifth on an RBI double by Miley and a single from Dorcean, prompting the Peacocks to pull their starting pitcher. The Eagles added another run in the inning on a wild pitch to go on top, 8-4.
Herrand also went 1-2-3 in his final inning of work and CSU gave him extra insurance with a three-run sixth, coming on another RBI from Black and a two-run triple by Nieves.
The Peacocks put three runs across in the seventh, but that was all they could muster the rest of the way as Nichol and Ruff held them scoreless.
CSU was able to plate some extra runs with a run scoring on an RBI single from Sarabia in the seventh. Dorcean was also plunked with the bases loaded while Black scored on a balk in the eighth. Dorcean has now been hit by a pitch 26 times in his career, putting him alone in third place on Coppin's all-time list behind
Bryant Miranda ('16) and
Corey Treyes ('20) with 29.
The Eagles close out the series when they host Saint Peter's in a 1 pm start on Sunday, February 19 at Joe Cannon Stadium.
