NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State's softball team forced a decisive game with a 6-5 victory over NC Central in the first game of the MEAC Championship, but fell to Central, 6-2 on Saturday at NSU Softball Stadium. Coppin's season, which featured a program-record eight-game conference win streak and first-ever trip to the MEAC Title Game, comes to a heartbreaking end at 16-28 overall.
Following the championship game,
Vanessa Carrizosa and
Seryna Esparza were named to the MEAC All-Tournament Team. Carrizosa started all six games and went 4-2 in the tournament, with a 3.32 ERA and five complete games, totaling 19 strikeouts in 38.0 innings. Esparza hit .500 with a tournament-high six RBI and nine base hits, including a home run and a pair of doubles.
Game 1: #5 Coppin State def. #3 NC Central, 6-5
Celeste Gonzales put together a herculean effort as she went 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI while also playing superb defense in centerfield.
Manaia Fonoti also had a pair of hits and matched
Seryna Esparza with two RBI as CSU recorded a season-high 11 base hits.
Vanessa Carrizosa picked up her fourth complete game victory of the Tournament, allowing three earned runs in 7.0 innings while striking out a season-high six. She now stands at 15-13 on the season, tying Hall of Famer
Paige Arnold for the third-most wins in school single-season history.
Gonzales led off the game with a single before stealing second, one of the team's seven steals in the game, before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Fonoti then brought her in with an RBI single, and she promptly stole second as well. After a groundout, she scored on a squeeze bunt from
Avianna Peterson to give Coppin a 2-0 lead.
Fonoti drove in Gonzales once again in the second inning after Gonzales doubled and reached third in a rundown.
NC Central cut the lead to 3-2 after its half of the second and both teams went scoreless in the third, despite a scary moment when Gonzales and
Brooklyn Tapusoa collided in the outfield during the final out of the inning. Gonzales was helped off the field but remained in the game and drove in a run with a single in the very next inning as
Ava Camarena led off with a single before stealing second and third.
After Gonzales stole second and Fonoti drew a walk, Esparza drove in both runs with a double to left center, increasing the lead to 6-2.
Carrizosa threw a 1-2-3 fifth, but NCCU kept fighting, scoring two in the sixth and one more in the seventh to pull within a run. She recorded the final out as Ivory Jones fouled out to Esparza to send the MEAC Championship to an extra game.
Game 2: #3 NC Central def. #5 Coppin State, 6-2
Coppin put up just six hits despite another complete game from
Vanessa Carrizosa, who gave up just three earned runs while striking out four in 7.0 innings.
Seryna Esparza and
Aniyah Haley both had a pair of hits in the decider.
NC Central scored twice in the second, but Coppin pulled to within one in the third on an RBI double from
Celeste Gonzales. NCCU got the run back in the fourth and added another later in the inning before going up, 6-1 with another run in both the fifth and seventh innings.
Coppin rallied in the seventh with a leadoff double off the centerfield wall by
Avianna Peterson, and she got to third on a single from Haley, who promptly stole second. Peterson scored as
Brooklyn Tapusoa reached on an error, but the next batter lined into a double play as Haley was forced out at second, thwarting the last-ditch effort.
