HANOVER, Md. – Despite not giving up an earned run over the final 6.1 innings, Coppin State's baseball team dropped its season opener to Creighton, 24-0, on Friday afternoon at Joe Cannon Stadium.
The Eagles fell behind quick as the Blue Jays went for ten runs in the first despite just a pair of runs being charged to starting pitcher
Nico Felber due to defensive miscues. Freshman
Jackson Montgomery threw the next two innings before giving way to classmates
Kaden Straily and
Michael Matthews who pitched very well in their collegiate debuts.
Straily entered the game with two outs in the third and walked his first batter before getting a flyout. After the Eagles went down in order in the bottom half, Straily got a 1-2-3 fourth inning with a pair of strikeouts and fanned two more in the fifth while issuing just a walk.
Matthews started the sixth on the hill for Coppin and allowed just one hit. The Eagles made their biggest threat to score in the bottom of the frame with singles by
Damon Gaither and
Daniel Moore before
Angel Colon was plunked to load the bases. Creighton got out unscathed following a strikeout and a groundout.
A pair of CSU errors in the seventh allowed the Blue Jays to add three more runs and Coppin only got walks by
Braylon Watson and Moore the rest of the way. Meanwhile, Matthews fanned two Blue Jays in the eighth and another in the ninth.
Offensively, Gaither and
Bryce Thompson both had a pair of hits while
Kai Holm and Moore added the others for Coppin. Moore matched Gaither and Thompson by also drawing a walk to reach twice safely.
Felber was charged with just two earned runs in 0.2 innings while Montgomery was hit for 11 runs over 2.0 innings. Straily allowed just two walks and no hits while striking out four in 2.1 innings before Matthews went the final 4.0 innings, allowing no earned runs on five hits while striking out five.
Weather permitting, the same two teams will meet at 1:00 pm on Saturday, February 17 at Joe Cannon Stadium.
