CATONSVILLE, Md. – The middle innings proved costly for Coppin State's baseball team in a 21-8 loss at UMBC on Tuesday afternoon at Alumni Field. With the loss, the Eagles fell to 5-13 while the Retrievers improved to 10-11.
Damon Gaither drove in three runs and slugged his sixth home run of the season while
Gabe Breckenridge also had a pair of RBI with a double.
Kai Holm reached base three times with a hit and two walks and
Angel Colon was the only Eagles player with a pair of hits.
Five Coppin pitchers combined to walk 13 batters with
Christian Pareja allowing three earned runs over the first 2.1 innings.
Jaedin Hurd gave up another four runs and
Brandon Stephens was charged with one as both threw two-thirds of an inning.
Justin Ritz gave up five runs before
Giovanni Canales finished the game by allowing seven runs over the final four innings.
Gaither gave Coppin a 2-0 lead, connecting for a two-run home run over the fence in left center in the top of the first. Holm drove in another with a bases-loaded walk in the second, getting the run back that UMBC scored in its half of the first.
UMBC cut the deficit to 3-2 after the second, before
Brody Black answered with an RBI on a fielder's choice in the third. Breckenridge followed up with a two-run double to left, scoring
Jayden Asencio and Black and giving the Eagles a four-run lead.
The Retrievers scored twice in the bottom half and following a sacrifice fly by Gaither in the fourth, UMBC scored 14 unanswered runs with five in the fourth and nine in the fifth.
Canales threw a scoreless sixth and got a 1-2-3 seventh before UMBC struck for three runs in the eighth.
Coppin scored once in it's final at-bat on a single by
Victor Alongi, scoring
Braylon Watson, before a double play ended the game.
CSU travels to Le Moyne for a three-game NEC series on March 28. Thursday's game is set for 3 pm, followed by a 1 pm start on Friday and 12 pm on Saturday.
