Box Score
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Freshman Justin Bhatti tossed a four-hitter and senior outfielder John Rasberry drove in a season-high four runs to send No. 4 seed Norfolk State to Saturday's MEAC Baseball Tournament championship round with a 9-3 win over No. 2 Delaware State in the losers' bracket final on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
NSU (24-28) will face top-seeded Bethune-Cookman on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Wildcats topped the Spartans 8-0 earlier Friday to send the Spartans into the losers' bracket. NSU must beat B-CU twice in a row to capture its first-ever MEAC baseball title. The Spartans will be making their fifth MEAC championship round appearance, and first since 2008.
The Spartans out-hit the Hornets 15-4. John Lynch led with way with a 3-for-5 day, knocking in two runs, scoring twice and stealing two bases. Rasberry, James Taylor, Ryan Montgomery and TiQuan Griffin added two each.
DSU (25-29) wasted no time getting on the board, turning two hits and a pair of walks into two first-inning runs. Scott Davis had the key hit, a two-run single with the bases loaded to put the Hornets on top, 2-0.
But NSU quickly answered with three straight hits in its first time up to bat. Taylor and Lynch both singled. Lynch stole second to put two runners in scoring position. Rasberry followed with a two-run single to tie the game. Rasberry advanced to second on a Ryan Haas wild pitch, and to third on a flyout. Chris Joyce knocked in Rasberry from third with an RBI groundout to give NSU the lead.
Rasberry's bases-loaded walk in the second extended NSU's lead to 4-2.
In the fourth, Taylor walked and Lynch connected for his second base hit of the day. The two executed a double steal of second and third, and both scored on a two-out single by Brandon Hairston.
Lynch tacked on two more with a single in the fifth, and Rasberry followed with another run-scoring single to extend the lead to 9-2.
Bhatti did the rest. He improved to 3-6 following the longest outing of his young NSU career. He pitched a career-high nine innings for his second complete game of the year. He allowed four hits, just two after the first, and three runs. He walked five and fanned three.
Haas (3-1) took the loss for the Hornets, allowing eight hits and four runs in two innings of work. Davis had two hits for DSU.
