Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Despite holding a lead well into both games of Saturday's doubleheader, the NSU baseball team fell victim to Maryland Eastern Shore rallies in both contests, losing a MEAC doubleheader, 8-6 and 4-1.
The Spartans were led by third baseman Chris Joyce (Chesapeake, Va.), who was 4-for-7 with two RBI on the day. Jerrod Farley (Chester, Va.) was 3-for-6 with a double, triple and two runs scored.
Elliott Alston had two hits in each game, and reliever John Deschamps picked up a win and a save in the two games for the Hawks (8-22, 6-2)
In game 1, NSU (6-12, 3-4 MEAC) jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings. John Lynch (Newport News, Va.) walked to lead off the game and scored on Joyce's first triple of the season. Joyce then promptly scored on a wild pitch by Matt Witte to make it 2-0.
NSU picked up two more runs in the second. TiQuan Griffin (Florence, S.C.) and Jermaine Berry (Suffolk, Va.) hit run-scoring singles in the inning. In the third, Farley doubled and scored on a Hawk error to make it 5-0 in favor of the Spartans.
But UMES slowly chipped away off NSU starter Quinn Bright (Virginia Beach, Va.). UMES picked up a run in the third and three more in the fifth to get within 5-4, with the fourth run scoring on an outfield error by the Spartans.
Still, NSU appeared in good shape in the eighth inning after Joyce's RBI single plated Lynch, who led off with a triple, to give NSU a 6-4 edge.
But the Hawks scored four times off just two hits in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead. Ben Vasko hit a two-run triple to tie the game at 6-all. UMES then executed a double steal, with Vasko scoring from third with the go-ahead run. Remo Orsini capped the scoring when he crossed the plate on a passed ball.
Deschamps (2-4) retired NSU in order in the ninth. He allowed one run in 3.2 innings of relief to get the win. Bright (3-2) allowed 11 hits and eight runs, six earned, in 7.2 innings to take the loss for NSU.
In the nightcap, NSU again got off to a fast start. Lynch reached on a UMES error and scored on another miscue to give the Spartan a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
NSU left hander Chase Davenport (Wooster, Ohio) was on cruise control, allowing just two hits through the first four innings. But he ran into trouble in the fifth. Phil Vaughn's two-run single highlighted a three-run inning for the Hawks. UMES then made it 4-1 on Alston's RBI single in the sixth.
That was more than enough for Hawks' starter Cameron Zimmerman (3-4). He allowed just three hits and one unearned run in six innings to get the win. Deschamps pitched a scoreless seventh for the save.
Davenport (2-2) took the loss, allowing five hits and three runs over five innings. He struck out four.
The teams conclude their three-game series on Sunday beginning at noon.
