BALTIMORE – Coppin State's softball team won two of three MEAC games against Maryland Eastern Shore on Friday-Saturday as the Eagles opened conference play in their home opener. On Friday night, Coppin rallied to defeat the Hawks, 12-11 in eight innings before splitting Saturday's doubleheader, dropping game one, 3-2 before blanking UMES, 8-0 in game two.
Game 1: Coppin State def. Maryland Eastern Shore, 12-11 (8 innings)
Giselle Ulloa drive in five runs, followed by
Emily Quintero with three.
Aniyah Haley and
Julianna Mejia also drove in runs while having two hits apiece and combining to score five runs. Quintero matched Haley and Mejia with a pair of hits, including the walkoff game-winning double in the eighth.
Quintero also got the win in relief of
Tatjana Harris who allowed three earned runs over the first 4.0 innings. Quintero gave up just one earned run on five hits while striking out a pair in the final 4.0 innings.
Both teams scored a run in the second with Haley tying the score at one with an RBI double to left, bringing home Quintero. The Hawks regained the lead with four runs in the four, but Mejia doubled in the bottom half of the frame to bring in Haley and cut the deficit to 5-2.
The Hawks tacked on another run in the fifth to extend their lead to four, before a pair of hits by CSU cut the advantage in half.
Brooklyn Tapusoa led off the frame with a walk before a single by
Xzylia Maravilla and a sac bunt by
Paris Pinkston. Quintero laced a shot to center field, driving in both Tapusoa and Maravilla.
Both teams had big sixth innings with UMES scoring four before the Eagles rallied for three to make it a 10-7 score. Haley led off with a walk before getting to third on a double by Mejia and scoring on Ulloa's three-run bomb over the fence in left field.
Quintero threw a 1-2-3 seventh to keep the game in reach and Coppin capitalized with three runs to tie the score and send the game into extra innings.
Kylee Sandino started the rally with a one-out solo home run. Back-to-back walks were issued to Haley and Mejia before a passed ball advanced both into scoring position. Ulloa then grounded out to third, driving in Haley, and Mejia was aggressive on the basepaths and scored from second to tie the score.
UMES scored a run in the eighth with the international tiebreaker rule In effect. In the bottom half, with Tapusoa placed on second at the start, Maravilla reached on an error during a sacrifice bunt attempt and Tapusoa scored on the play. Quintero then doubled to left and Maravilla came all the way around from first to win it.
Game 2: Maryland Eastern Shore def. Coppin State, 3-2
Julianna Mejia went 1-for-1 with a run scored and an RBI while drawing three walks.
Aniyah Haley and
Paris Pinkston also had base knocks with Pinkston also drawing a walk.
In the circle,
Debra Hyde went all 7.0 innings, giving up just three runs on seven hits while striking out three.
Hyde held UMES scoreless through the first three innings before Coppin took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Hyde helped her own cause with a leadoff walk and got to second on an error before being forced out at third. Mejia drove in the first run with an RBI single to bring home
Kylee Sandino, and following a steal and an error, Mejia scored on another error with
Brooklyn Tapusoa at the plate.
The Hawks scored a run on three hits in the fourth before adding two runs on two hits in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead.
Coppin threatened in the seventh with a two-out triple by Haley but was unable to tie the score.
Game 3: Coppin State def. Maryland Eastern Shore, 8-0
Tatjana Harris threw a three-hit shutout for her first collegiate victory.
Paris Pinkston drove in three runs and
Xzylia Maravilla drove in two more while
Giselle Ulloa and
Emily Quintero both had multi-hit games. Ulloa scored three times and
Julianna Mejia had two more runs.
Coppin scored in every inning, getting RBIs from Maravilla and Pinkston in the first on a single and a sacrifice fly, respectively.
Harris threw a 1-2-3 second before
Aniyah Haley extended the lead to 3-0 with a sacrifice fly in the bottom half.
The Eagles tacked on three runs on four hits in the third with Pinkston driving in two more with a single, bringing home Ulloa and Maravilla. Ulloa had tripled to start the inning before Maravilla walked and stole second. Pinkston later scored on an RBI single by
Kylee Sandino.
Harris escaped a small jam in the fourth as UMES lined out to Mejia at third and she threw out the runner at second who was leaning toward third.
Mejia led off the fourth by reaching on an error and got to third on a single by Ulloa. After a steal, Coppin put the run-rule into effect on back-to-back sacrifice flies by
Brooklyn Tapusoa and Maravilla.
Up Next: Coppin returns to action on Tuesday, March 18 in a 2 pm single game at Towson, making up the postponed game from March 2.
