Box Score
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Chase Davenport (Wooster, Ohio) pitched 6.2 scoreless innings, and Jerrod Farley (Chester, Va.) had two runs batted in to help No. 6 seed Norfolk State eliminate No. 4 Maryland Eastern Shore with a 4-0 win on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
NSU (22-22) faces another do-or-die game on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. against No. 3 Florida A&M, which lost 11-5 to No. 5 North Carolina A&T on Friday. The Hawks' season ends at 14-42.
Davenport (6-5) enjoyed his finest outing of the season, allowing just three hits and matching his season high with five strikeouts. He left in the seventh inning in favor of freshman right hander Ryan Shook (Virginia Beach, Va.). Shook pitched 2.1 scoreless frames for his second save of the day and third of the year to give the Spartans their second shutout of the year.
NSU got the only run it would need in the bottom of the second. Clean-up hitter Juan Herrera (Santiago, Dominican Republic) led off the inning with a single up the middle off UMES starter Cameron Zimmerman. Herrera advanced to second on a sacrifice and scored on a base hit to center field by Farley.
The Spartans picked up another run in the bottom of the third. John Lynch (Newport News, Va.) reached on an infield single, and a fielder's choice and hit batter loaded the bases. Farley then walked with the bases loaded to plate Lynch for a 2-0 Spartans' edge.
UMES mounted a threat in the top of the fifth, loading the bases on a single, an NSU error and a walk. But Davenport fanned Remo Orsini and Bryan Chaikowsky to escape unscathed.
NSU made it 3-0 in the sixth. Cam Parsons (Chesapeake, Va.) and TiQuan Griffin (Florence, S.C.) hit back-to-back one-out singles, and Lynch was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Zimmerman struck out Chris Joyce (Chesapeake, Va.), but the ball got away from catcher Matt Witte, allowing Parsons to score the third run.
Drew Suttmiller (Chesapeake, Va.) accounted for NSU's final run with a bloop single over a drawn-in Hawks' infield in the seventh.
Zimmerman dropped to 3-8 with the loss. He allowed eight hits and four runs in six innings. He walked four and struck out four.
Lynch, Suttmiller and Parsons had two hits apiece for NSU. Herrera was 1-for-2 with two runs scored, and Farley was 1-for-3 with two RBI and two stolen bases.
Russel Deutschmann had two of UMES' four hits.
