Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – Ryan Wiggins (Hayes, Va.) hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning of game one to lead Norfolk State to a 3-2 win, but Savannah State rallied to take game two, 9-1, to salvage a split of the team's doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Marty L. Miller Field.
The Spartans are now 16-22-1 on the year, while SSU is 24-21.
In game one, NSU rallied from a 2-1 deficit behind some clutch pitching and hitting. Both teams scored a run in the first. SSU scored first on Dexter Kelley's RBI triple, while NSU answered in the bottom of the first when Chris Joyce (Chesapeake, Va.) singled and later scored on a Tigers' error to tie the score.
Joseph McCrary made it 2-1 in SSU's favor with an RBI double in the fourth. The lead would stand until the bottom of the sixth. Chris Warren (Virginia Beach, Va.) led off with a single, his second hit of the game, and was sacrificed to second by Sammy Serafine (Chesapeake, Va.). Warren went to third on a failed pickoff attempt, and scored the tying run on a Cameron Parsons (Chesapeake, Va.) groundout.
Warren (2-2, two runs scored in game 1) was also responsible for starting the go-ahead rally in the eighth. He led off the frame by walking, and Serafine again sacrificed Warren to second. Parsons singled to put runners at the corners, and Wiggins followed with a sacrifice fly to left to drive home Warren.
That was all the NSU bullpen would need. Ryan Davis (Gilbert, Ariz.) pitched 1.1 scoreless innings to improve to 3-4 on the year. He pitched a scoreless eighth, but put two of the first three runners on base in the ninth. He was relieved by freshman Jordan Egan (Virginia Beach, Va.), who got a fielder's choice groundout and a strikeout to end the game. It was the first save of Egan's career.
NSU left hander Chase Davenport (Wooster, Ohio) did not factor into the decision, but pitched seven solid innings. He gave up eight hits and two earned runs, walking two and striking out three.
SSU's Mark Sherrod (4-1) got the loss. He allowed seven hits and three runs, one earned, in 7.1 innings. He walked seven and fanned four.
Joyce, Warren, Parsons and James Taylor (Virginia Beach, Va.) accounted for NSU's eight hits in game one by tallying two apiece.
Game two would be a different story as the Tigers scored twice in the first, then put it out of reach with a five-run sixth inning.
Matthew Nowacki hit a two-run single off Spartan starting pitcher Raymond Morton (Chesapeake, Va.) in the first. NSU got a run back on Parsons' sac fly in the second. But the Tigers stretched their lead back to two runs at 3-1 with a single tally in the fourth, then put it away with five more in the sixth and one in the seventh.
Jonathan Ross was 3-for-4 in game two and led the Tigers with four hits on the afternoon. Joseph Jackson (5-1) earned the win by allowing a single run in 4.2 innings of work in the nightcap.
Morton, making his first career start, took the loss to drop to 0-1. He allowed seven hits and three runs in five innings.
Joyce, Parsons and Warren paced NSU with three hits each on the day.
The Spartans are back in action on Wednesday when they host VCU at 4 p.m.
