NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State's softball team was unable to hold on to a four-run, fifth inning lead as it fell to Norfolk State, 6-5, on Saturday afternoon at NSU Softball Field. The Eagles fell to 3-25 overall and 3-15 in the MEAC while the Spartans improved to 21-17 on the year and 14-4 in league play.
Aniyah Haley and
Julianna Mejia had two hits with a double apiece with Haley scoring twice and Mejia adding an RBI.
Xzylia Maravilla had a big two-run home run while
Giselle Ulloa, Brooklyn Tapusoa and
Emily Quintero also had base hits.
Quintero threw the entire game from the circle, allowing five earned runs on nine hits in 6.1 innings in the loss.
The Eagles took advantage of a pair of NSU errors to score a run in the first. Haley led off the game with a double and scored as Mejia lined out to the pitcher who threw the ball away trying to double up Haley.
Coppin added two more in the second with Quintero helping her own cause with a single before scoring on a wild pitch and another Spartans error. Haley singled later in the inning with two outs and scored as Mejia shot the gap in left center for a double.
Quintero was a victim to some bad luck in the third as NSU got on the board. A single down the first base line squirted through the glove of
Sondra Berry for a single. On the very next pitch, a liner, which appeared to be caught by Haley for the third out was ruled a hit and the runner on first came all the way around to score.
Maravilla slugged a 0-1 pitch she saw in the fifth way over the left field wall, extending Coppin's lead to 5-1 before Norfolk State mounted its comeback.
The hosts scored a run in the fifth and added another in the sixth to cut the deficit to 5-3. After a leadoff double, NSU made it a one-run game with an RBI single. Following a steal and a walk, the Spartans tied it up with a double before winning it with a walk-off infield single.
Coppin travels to Delaware for a single game on Tuesday, April 22 at 4 pm before hosting Morgan State in the series finale on April 26-27.
