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NORFOLK, Va. – Jerrod Farley (Chester, Va.) was 2-for-3 and scored three times, John Boyd III (Hempstead, N.Y.) knocked in two runs on a pair of singles and Jason Barker (Chesapeake, Va.) pitched his first career complete game as No. 5 Norfolk State eliminated No. 6 Maryland Eastern Shore, 7-2, in the MEAC Baseball Tournament at Marty L. Miller Field.

The Spartans (22-23) advance to a 6 p.m. game on Friday night against No. 4 Delaware State. UMES ends its season at 6-50.

UMES got off to a good start, scoring a run in the first inning and one in the third thanks to a pair of Spartan errors. But NSU scored twice in the third and four more times in the fourth to break the game open.

Farley and Boyd were in the middle of both rallies. In the third, Farley led off with a triple to left-center. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Moriba George (St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.). Later in the inning, Boyd knocked in John Lynch (Newport News, Va.) with a single for NSU's second run.

NSU plated four runs on five hits in the fourth off UMES starter Elliott Arrington (1-8). Farley drove in TiQuan Griffin (Florence, S.C.) with a single through them left side to give NSU a 3-2 lead. One out later, Brad Stephenson (Chesapeake, Va.), Boyd and Chris Joyce (Chesapeake, Va.) followed with consecutive two-out RBI singles for a 6-2 NSU lead.

The Spartans added their final run in the eighth. Farley walked, stole second and went to third on a flyout. He scored from third on George's suicide squeeze bunt.
 
That was enough for Barker, who settled down to improve his record to 3-1. He allowed just one hit in his final five innings, and seven for the game. He struck out five and allowed just the two unearned runs.

Joyce finished 2-for-5 and George was 0-for-1 with three sacrifices and two RBI for the Spartans.

Pichardo had two hits for the Hawks.