BALTIMORE – Coppin State's softball team notched a 20-win season for just the third time in school history as it split a doubleheader at league-leading Morgan State on Sunday afternoon at Lois Murray Field. The Eagles, who dropped the opener, 5-4 before blanking the Bears, 3-0, in game two, finished the regular season at 20-20 overall and a program-best 15-6 in the MEAC and will be the third seed in the MEAC Tournament on May 8-11.
CSU's 20 victories are the second-most in program history, matching its total from the 2012 season where they went 20-22 with a 13-5 mark in the MEAC. Two years prior, the Eagles went 22-22 overall and 9-6 in the MEAC.
Game 1: Morgan State def. Coppin State, 5-4
Five different Eagles players had base hits with
Aniyah Haley, Leslie Sereno and
Xzylia Maravilla driving in runs with doubles.
Emily Quintero was charged with just four earned runs as she went all 7.2 innings before falling in the eighth on a groundout.
Seryna Esparza reached on an error in the first which allowed
Celeste Gonzales to score and give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Morgan State matched the run with one in the bottom half and the Bears tacked on two in the second and one in the third to take a 4-1 lead.
Coppin tied the score in the fifth with three runs on four hits with
Brooklyn Tapusoa leading off the inning with a single before back-to-back doubles from Sereno and Maravilla cut the deficit to 4-3. After a pitching change, Haley tied the score with an RBI single through the left side.
Both teams went scoreless in the sixth and seventh, sending the game into extra innings.
Coppin was unable to advance the runner from second as the international tiebreaker was used to start the frame. The Bears sacrificed their runner over with a bunt and a groundout to second ended the game as the Eagles threw to first.
Game 2: Coppin State def. Morgan State, 3-0
Seryna Esparza went 2-for-3 with a home run and two RBI while
Vanessa Carrizosa (13-14) pitched a three-hit shutout while striking out two in the complete game.
Julianna Mejia also went 1-for-2 with a walk while
Aniyah Haley and
Celeste Gonzales scored runs.
Esparza gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the first, driving in Gonzales who reached and advanced to second on an error. She got an extra base as
Manaia Fonoti grounded out.
The run was all Carrizosa would need as she retired the first six batters, stranded one in each of the middle innings and got seven of the final eight batters out.
Coppin got an insurance run in the third on a single by Fonoti which brought in Haley all the way from first along with an error.
Esparza welcomed a relief pitcher in the fourth with a long blast over the fence in right field for her team-leading fifth home run of the season.
