Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – Jerrod Farley (Chester, Va.) delivered a two-out, RBI walk-off single in a wild seventh inning as Norfolk State rallied for a 13-12 win in game 1 of a doubleheader Saturday with Savannah State. The Spartans then rode that momentum and a complete game by Chase Davenport (Wooster, Ohio) to an 8-2 victory in the nightcap and a sweep of the Tigers at Marty L. Miller Field.
NSU (15-18) rapped out 30 hits in the two games. None was bigger than Farley's hit, which gave the Spartans their first walk-off victory of the season.
NSU led 9-4 after six innings of the opener. But starter Quinn Bright (Virginia Beach, Va.) ran into trouble going for the complete game in the top of the seventh. Four of the first five hitters he faced in the seventh reached, with Dexter Kelley's RBI single making it 9-6 and chasing Bright with one out.
Spartan reliever Ryan Davis (Gilbert, Ariz.) didn't fare much better. He fanned the first batter he faced, Jordan Monico. But Darien Campbell started a string of five straight Tigers hits with an infield single. Brett Pointer followed with a two-run double, and Julius Green's infield hit tied the game at 9-all. Another run scored on an NSU error, and Tristan Smith and Matthew Oglesby followed with run-scoring hits to cap the eight-run, nine-hit inning and give SSU a 12-9 lead.
But NSU was not done. Drew Suttmiller (Chesapeake, Va.) led off the seventh with his third hit of the game. He scored on a long RBI double by TiQuan Griffin (Florence, S.C.) to cut the lead to 12-10. John Lynch (Newport News, Va.) then walked, and a groundout put Griffin at third and Lynch at second with two outs. Chris Joyce (Chesapeake, Va.) followed with a two-run single on a 1-2 count off Tiger reliever Michael Allegretti to tie the game.
After a single by Jermaine Berry (Suffolk, Va.), Farley ended the game with a sharp single to left-center, capping an inning which saw 12 total runs and 14 hits.
Ryan Shook (Virginia Beach, Va.) earned his first win as a Spartan, recording the final out in the top of the seventh before his team rallied. Joyce and Suttmiller each had three hits in the opener, Farley knocked in three and Lynch scored three times.
In game 2, the Tigers scored two quick runs thanks to two NSU errors and a Kelley RBI bunt single in the top of the first.
But NSU kept the hits coming off Allegretti (5-7), who started the nightcap for the Tigers but ended up losing both ends of the doubleheader. Joyce cut the Spartans' deficit in half with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning, and NSU chased Allegretti with a four-run third inning. Pat Hall (Virginia Beach, Va.) tied the game with an RBI single up the middle, and Cam Parsons (Chesapeake, Va.) gave NSU the 3-2 lead with an RBI single of his own.
Courtrevez McTier relieved Allegretti, but was greeted by a two-run single off the bat of Lynch that made it 5-2.
Hall added an RBI double and Parsons stroked a two-run single as the Spartans added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
That was more than enough for Davenport (4-4), who pitched his second complete game of the year. He recorded eight straight outs on two separate occasions during the contest. Davenport allowed just five hits and two unearned runs. He walked one and struck out four.
Lynch (4-for-8), Joyce (4-for-9) and Berry (4-for-7) led NSU with four hits apiece on the day. Farley, Joyce and Parsons each knocked in three runs, with Parsons recording a season-high with three in the nightcap. Lynch led the squad with five runs scored in the two games.
Kelley went 5-for-7 to lead the Tigers (23-23), while Andrew Mendez added four hits.
The teams conclude their three-game series with a single contest at 1 p.m. Sunday.
