Box Score
DOVER, Del. – Brandon Hairston (North Garden, Va.) hit a two-out, RBI double in the top of the 10th inning Sunday as Norfolk State won the rubber game of a weekend MEAC series at Delaware State, 13-12.
Hairston's heroics capped a 3-hour, 40-minute marathon. The Spartans (14-19-1, 6-9 MEAC) once led it 6-0, only to lose the lead and have to score twice in the ninth to send the game into extra innings.
John Lynch (Newport News, Va.) was 3-for-6 with a homer and three stolen bases for NSU. He gave NSU a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the top of the first, his second bomb of the series. A Ryan Wiggins (Hayes, Va.) squeeze bunt and John Rasberry (Suffolk, Va.) two-run double in the second made it 5-0. In the third, Lynch singled, stole second and third bases, and scored on a passed ball to stretch NSU's lead to 6-0.
But DSU (12-22, 8-4) quickly rallied to tie the game. Keith Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the third and Jose Portela did likewise in the fourth to help the Hornets knot the score at 6-all.
NSU took a short-lived 8-6 lead in the fifth on the strength of RBI singles by Sammy Serafine (Chesapeake, Va.) and Zaine Jack (Virginia Beach, Va.). But the Hornets scored four runs in their next three times up to take a 10-8 lead. Brandon Crist's two-run single in the seventh was the go-ahead hit.
The Spartans tied the game at 10-all in the eighth without benefit of a hit. A walk, DSU three-base error and an RBI groundout by Rasberry again tied the score, but the Hornets answered in the bottom of the eighth to go back up by two. Abe Eubank hit an RBI double and Tony Gatto delivered a run-scoring single to put DSU ahead 12-10.
Down to its final three outs, NSU would have the answer. Hairston reached base on a Hornet error and advanced to third on a double by Chris Warren (Virginia Beach, Va.). Serafine knocked in Hairston with a sacrifice fly, and Warren advanced to third on the play. Warren then scored on a wild pitch by DSU reliever Ryan Haas.
After NSU reliever Ryan Shook (Virginia Beach, Va.) pitched out of a one-out, two-on jam in the ninth, Lynch reached on a two-out single in the 10th. He stole second and scored on Hairston's double.
Shook retired the Hornets in the 10th to preserve the win for NSU. He improved to 2-1 on the year by pitching the final 1.2 innings. Mike Rizzuto (0-1) took the loss for DSU, allowing two hits and a run in the 10th.
Lynch scored three times and knocked in two. Rasberry went 2-for-6 with three runs batted in, while Serafine added two RBI. Warren and Jack also had two hits each for NSU.
The Hornets lost despite out-hitting the Spartans 20-12. Gatto went 4-for-6, while Eubank, Crist and Peter Broehl added three hits apiece.
The Spartans now return home for their final 13 regular-season games, beginning with a 3 p.m. doubleheader Wednesday with North Carolina Central.
