Box Score
NORFOLK, Va. – Visiting Maine pounded out 18 hits, including seven extra-base hits, to end Norfolk State's eight-game winning streak in the Black Bears' 16-5 victory on Friday afternoon at
Marty L. Miller Field.
The Black Bears (8-14) scored at least one run in the first seven innings, including five in the first and sixth in the fifth, to pull away early from the Spartans (9-13). Fran Whitten went 4-for-6 with a trio of doubles, Michael Fransoso went 3-for-5, and four other Black Bears had two hits each.
Maine pieced together four singles and took advantage of four Spartan errors and two walks from NSU starting pitcher Jordan Egan to plate five runs in the top of the first. Four of them were unearned. Ian Leisenheimer and Alex Calbick both hit RBI singles in the frame.
Calbick hit a solo homer in the second – the first round-tripper at Marty L. Miller Field this season. Maine added one run in the third and the fourth, then plated six runs in the fifth. Leisenheimer hit a two-run triple and Whitten a run-scoring double to highlight the frame.
NSU got on the board in the third as Rafael Colon singled and scored on a long triple to deep center field by Cameron Day. The Spartans added two more runs via a two-out, two-run Justin Lee single in the bottom of the eighth, and two in the ninth without benefit of a hit.
Two Spartans recorded their first career hits on Friday: freshman catcher Carson Moon and sophomore outfielder Mark Wells achieved the feat with consecutive singles in the sixth inning.
Colon went 3-for-3 and walked once, reaching in all four of his plate appearances. The three hits ties his career high, which he has done twice before this season. Day and Wells both went 2-for-3, and Wells recorded his first career RBI on a groundout in the ninth.
Leisenheimer, Calbick, Troy Black and Scott Heath added two hits apiece for Maine. Steve Perakslis (2-2) earned the win with six effective innings of work. He gave up eight hits and one run, striking out four.
Egan (1-3) took the loss for NSU, allowing nine hits and eight runs (four earned) in four innings pitched.
The teams play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
