Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box

NORFOLK, Va. – Coppin State shut down the Norfolk State softball team in a doubleheader sweep Sunday afternoon, as the Eagles won, 4-0 and 9-2, at the NSU Softball Field.

Preseason MEAC Pitcher of the Year Paige Arnold scattered three hits in the first game and struck out 10 batters with just two walks in all seven innings. Arnold pitched the last three innings of Game 2 with the Eagles holding a 5-2 lead, striking out three without giving up a hit.

NSU saw its record fall to 2-2 on the season, while Coppin State opened its 2011 season with the sweep of the Spartans.

Freshman Jamie Schulle took the loss in Game 1 for NSU, giving up three earned runs on two hits in four plus innings of work. Junior Casey Pomeroy pitched all seven innings in Game 2, allowing five earned runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts.

Pomeroy also had two hits in the second game, while freshman Melina Valles went 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Coppin State got on the board in the first game in the opening frame on a sacrifice fly off the bat of cleanup hitter Stacey Burgos. Schulle held the Eagles scoreless until they pushed across a pair of runs in the fifth inning. An RBI double by Erica Washington after a pair of walks and a single by pinch hitter Carmen Frazier gave Coppin State a 3-0 lead.

Burgos lined a pitch off the glove of junior relief pitcher Elizabeth Castaneda to score an insurance run for the Eagles in the top of the seventh.

The Eagles scored three runs in the top of the third inning in the second game, as Arnold hit a two-out, three-run home run to deep left-center field for a 3-0 lead. Junior Danielle Wright hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning, while Castaneda lined an RBI single to center field in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut the Eagle lead to one, 3-2.

The very next inning, though, Burgos hit an RBI single in the top of the fifth, and then she and Arnold pulled off a double steal that allowed Arnold to cross the plate to give Coppin State a 5-2 lead.

Arnold returned to the circle in the bottom half of the fifth and shut the Spartans down. A pair of errors on NSU in the top of the seventh – the Spartans committed five in the second game after a flawless first game – led to four more runs for the Eagles for the final scoring margin.

NSU will return to its home field next Friday with a 7 p.m. game against Morgan State before hosting the Spartan Invitational all day Saturday and Sunday.