ANDOVER, Mass. – Coppin State's baseball team swept a NEC doubleheader with Merrimack College on Saturday afternoon at Greater Lawrence HS. The Eagles (6-13, 3-3 NEC) blanked the Warriors, 8-0, in the opener, before taking the nightcap, 4-3 in ten innings to sweep the three-game series.
Statistics from both games on Saturday were not made available until Sunday.
Game 1
Marcos Herrand threw a complete game shutout for the Eagles, allowing just six hits while striking out a career-high seven.
Sam Nieves was the only CSU player with multiple hits, but the Eagles were patient at the plate which led to them drawing ten walks.
Mike Dorcean walked three times and scored twice while
Jordan Hamberg and
Sebastien Sarabia had a pair of free passes.
Josh Hankins had a team-high two RBI.
Liam McCallum drove in the team's first run in the top of the first with a groundout, bringing in Hamberg, and that was all Herrand would need.
Coppin scored three more in the second on RBI from
Brian Nicolas, Hamberg and Sarabia before Hankins broke it open with a two-run single later in the inning.
In the seventh, Nieves drove in a run with a double before on a balk.
Herrand cruised through the Merrimack lineup with the Warriors stranding eight runners. He got stronger as the game went on, retiring the final six batters he faced.
Game 2
Liam McCallum led Coppin with three hits while
Brody Black added two more, accounting for five of the team's nine base hits.
Josh Hankins drove in another two runs with a double.
Jordan Hamberg struck out seven while allowing just one hit in 5.2 innings but walked eight.
Tim Ruffino tossed 2.1 scoreless innings of relief before
Rashad Ruff threw the final 2.0 innings and got the win.
Hankins put CSU on top, 2-0 with a double in the first, allowing McCallum and
Sebastien Sarabia to score. Black scored in the second as
Brian Nicolas reached on an error, giving Coppin a 3-0 lead.
Striking out six through the first four innings, Merrimack got to Hamberg in the sixth, tying the score at three with a pair of hits and three walks. Ruffino was able to get the final out of the inning.
Merrimack threatened in the eighth to no avail, as did Coppin in the ninth, before the Eagles broke through in the tenth.
Angel Colon got a one-out single before advancing to third on a single by McCallum. He then scored on Sarabia's sacrifice fly to give CSU the lead.
Ruff got the first batter in the tenth to ground out, but after a double, retired the side to clinch the sweep for the Navy & Gold.
Up Next
Coppin hosts UMBC on Tuesday, March 21 at 3:00 pm before hosting Fairleigh Dickinson in a three-game NEC series on March 24-26.
