LARGO, Md. – A pair of errors in both the first and eighth innings proved costly as Coppin State's baseball team dropped its season opener to Mount St. Mary's, 11-5, on Tuesday afternoon at PGCC Baseball Field. The Mount evened its record at 2-2 with the win after opening its season against Missouri over the weekend.
Pedro Agosto was the lone CSU player with a pair of hits while
Kenan Harvey, Pranav Sundar and
Angel Garcia had extra-base hits. Agosto also had a pair of outfield assists from left field in his CSU debut while
Noah Hogan drove in a pair of runs.
Dillon Kirksey got the starting nod on the mound and allowed two unearned runs while striking out two in 2.0 innings.
Jake Cumming also fanned a pair in his two innings of work before
Luke Corcoran gave up just one hit in a scoreless fifth with two more strikeouts.
Nicco Holland gave up just one walk in two scoreless innings before
Jack Joyce was charged with five unearned runs.
Mekenna Wakakuwa and
Justin Ritz went the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, giving up one hit while striking out one each.
A two-run double by Mount St. Mary's gave the visitors a 2-0 lead before Kirksey settled down for a 1-2-3 second inning. Cumming allowed three in the third and one more in the fourth as the Mount jumped out to a 6-0 lead.
Emilio Feliciano and Agosto had back-to-back singles to start the fourth, but
Nelson Grajales grounded into a triple play to end the inning. The Eagles got on the board in the fifth with Harvey scoring from second as
Bryce Thompson reached on a fielding error.
Terrell Milliner scored later in the inning on Hogan's groundout to third.
CSU pulled to within, 6-4 in the seventh on another RBI groundout from Hogan, driving in Thompson who walked and advanced to third on a double by Sundar. Sundar scored later in the frame on a wild pitch as Feliciano drew a walk on the pitch.
Mount St. Mary's took advantage of four walks and a pair of errors to pull away in the eighth and Coppin only managed one more run which came in the bottom half of the inning.
Angel Garcia delivered a pinch-hit triple down the right field line in his first collegiate at-bat, scoring
Armando (AJ) Hurtado from first after he was plunked to start the inning.
Coppin faces a tough test this weekend when it travels to #19 Oklahoma for a three-game series on February 20-22. All three games will air on SEC+ with Friday's game slated for 5 pm, followed by a 3 pm start on Saturday and 12 pm on Sunday.
