NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State's baseball team dropped in series opener at Norfolk State, 7-6, in ten innings on Thursday afternoon at Marty Miller Field. The Eagles fell to 4-20 overall and 4-9 in the NEC while the Spartans moved to 11-16 on the year and 8-5 in league play.
Pedro Agosto went 4-for-5 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBI to lead the offense while
Armando (AJ) Hurtado and
Pranav Sundar also had a pair of hits.
Jake Cumming gave up five runs on five hits in 5.1 innings, and after
Mekenna Wakakuwa retired a batter,
Justin Ritz threw 3.1 scoreless innings of relief while giving up just two hits.
Keith Wallace took the loss, giving up the winning run while retiring a pair of Spartans.
Hurtado gave the Eagles an early 2-0 lead with a two-run home run in the first, and after Norfolk State got a run back in the bottom half,
Noah Hogan and Agosto drove in runs in the second to extend Coppin's lead to three.
Norfolk cut Coppin's lead in half with a run in the fourth, which Agosto answered with a leadoff home run in the fifth. Hurtado and
Angel Garcia followed with back-to-back singles, and after a groundball advanced Hurtado to third, he scored on
Jordan Treadwell's sacrifice fly to centerfield to make it a 6-2 score.
The Spartans tied the score at six with four runs in the sixth, and they remained tied until the tenth as Coppin left ten runners stranded over the final five innings. NSU had a pair of batters hit in the tenth, and after a walk loaded the bases, Wallace was called for a balk to plate the winning run.
Game two of the series is set for Friday, April 3 at 2 pm, followed the finale at 12 pm on Saturday, April 4.
