Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box
NORFOLK, Va. – John Rasberry capped his impressive weekend by hitting a walk-off two-out RBI single in game two as the Spartans earned a split of their doubleheader Sunday against Penn at Marty L. Miller Field. NSU lost game one 14-6, but took game two, 2-1.
Rasberry went 2-for-4 in both games. His RBI single through the right side of the infield plated Chris Warren, who had singled to lead off the inning.
Rasberry put the Spartans (7-13) on top 1-0 in the bottom of the first in game two. James Taylor led off the Spartans' first inning with a single, then went to second on a groundout. Rasberry followed with a sharp single through the right side, giving NSU a 1-0 lead.
NSU sophomore right hander Raymond Morton made the lead stand through six of the game's seven innings. He kept a hot Quakers' offense at bay until the top of the seventh and final frame. Derek Vigoa led off the inning with a single for the Quakers (6-8), then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Brandon Engelhardt singled in Vigoa to knot the score at 1-all.
Morton pitched out of the jam, and his offense wasted no time in mounting a threat. Warren lined a single to center, his second hit of the game, to start the bottom of the seventh. Ryan Montgomery followed with a sacrifice bunt, but Penn catcher Will Davis tried to throw out Warren at second. Instead, the throw short-hopped the second-base bag and skipped into center field, allowing Warren to reach third.
Penn starter Paul Cusick (1-2) then induced a groundout by TiQuan Griffin, which allowed Montgomery to reach second base but kept Warren at third. Cusick then struck out Taylor, and opted to intentionally walk NSU first baseman Brandon Hairston to set up a force play at any base. Rasberry, however, foiled that strategy by grounding a 1-0 pitch through the infield for the winning run.
Morton (2-2) pitched his first career complete game for his second victory of the year. He scattered eight hits, walked one and struck out two. Cusick (1-2) allowed nine hits and two runs, one earned, in 6.2 innings. He walked two and struck out six.
Warren, Taylor and Rasberry had two hits each for the Spartans in the nightcap.
NSU also hit the ball well in game one, out-hitting Penn 14-13. But the Quakers strung together several big hits off the NSU bullpen to rally from an early deficit.
Engelhardt gave Penn a 1-0 lead in the top of the second with a run-scoring single off NSU starter Justin Bhatti. But the Spartans came to life with a four-run bottom of the second. Griffin hit a two-run double to give NSU the lead. Taylor followed with an RBI double of his own to score Griffin, and Rasberry capped the uprising with an RBI single that scored Taylor, giving the Spartans a 4-1 lead.
Penn's Jeremy Maas cut the deficit to 4-3 with a two-run homer off Bhatti in the fifth. The shot hung up in the wind before bouncing over the top of the left-field fence.
Bhatti – who allowed two earned runs and struck out five – left after the fifth, and the Spartan bullpen was unable to hold the lead for him. Penn struck for five runs in the sixth and three more in the eighth to put the game out of reach. Dan Williams had RBI hits in the sixth and seventh. Rick Brebner added a two-run single in the five-run sixth, and Maas hit his second homer of the day, a solo shot, in the ninth.
Engelhardt, Williams and Maas each had three hits for Penn in game one. Engelhardt tallied six hits in the two games on Sunday.
Taylor was 3-for-4 for NSU, while Griffin, Hairston, Rasberry and Cameron Parsons had two hits apiece for the Spartans in opener.
Patrick Brennan (1-0) got the win for Penn, tossing the final 5.1 innings and allowing two runs. Jeff Di Fulgo took the loss for NSU to fall to 0-1. He surrendered eight runs in two relief innings.
Taylor ended the doubleheader 5-for-8 for the Spartans and scored three runs. Rasberry was 4-for-8 and batted 9-for-18 in the four-game series.
The Spartans host William & Mary at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
