Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – NSU overcame an early three-run deficit to gut out an 11-10, 10-inning win over host Maryland Eastern Shore in game 1, but the Hawks charged back for an 11-4 win in game 2 as the teams split a MEAC doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Hawks Stadium.
NSU is now 10-20 on the season, 6-7 in the MEAC. UMES is 9-26, 8-6.
Game 1 was a wild affair that featured a combined 21 runs, 31 hits and 11 errors. UMES took advantage of early walks and errors from the Spartans to go up 3-0. The Spartans would score eight of the game's next nine runs as their bats came to life, before UMES rallied with three runs in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings. But NSU scored the go-ahead run when
Chase Kyriacou drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the 10th, and
Jordan Egan set down UMES in the bottom of the 10th to help the Spartans end their six-game losing streak.
Down 3-0, NSU scored four times in the top of the fourth.
Ryan Montgomery led off with a double and scored on a
Ross Cardwell single. The Spartans then converted four Hawk errors and a wild pitch into three more runs, giving NSU a 4-3 edge.
The Spartans added two runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth,
Shane Hoggard doubled and scored on a
Chris Warren RBI triple.
Mikey Bruno followed with a single to plate Warren.
In the sixth, Hoggard stroked his second double in as many innings, knocking in a pair of runs to give NSU an 8-4 lead.
UMES drew within 8-7 with a three-run sixth, with two runs scoring on Jeffrey Fleetwood's single. Bruno, though, gave the Spartans a cushion with a two-run single in the top of the eighth inning.
The Hawks still weren't done, knotting the game with three more runs in the bottom of the ninth off NSU reliever
Richie Salter. Tre-von Johnson singled – his sixth hit of the game – and scored on Fleetwood's triple. Malik Wylie followed with an RBI single, and later scored on NSU's fifth error of the game to force extras.
But the Spartans wasted little time in taking the lead for good.
Tyon Ore led off the inning with a walk, and UMES pitcher Karim Gonzalez loaded the bases by walking
Hunter Kenney and
Justin Lee. Byron Parker relieved Gonzalez but didn't fare any better, walking Kyriacou to force in Ore with the go-ahead run.
Egan gave up back-to-back one-out singles to Johnson and Fleetwood in the bottom of the 10th, but fanned Wylie and Joshua James to end the game.
Egan improved to 2-3 on the year with 1.2 scoreless innings of work. He fanned three batters. Gonzalez (1-4) gave up one run and walked five in 1.1 innings of work to take the loss.
Cardwell had a season-high three hits and went 3-for-6 in the opener for NSU. He scored three times. Montgomery went 2-for-5 with three runs scored, while Bruno was 2-for-4 with a season-high three RBI, and Hoggard and Warren added two hits each.
Johnson went 6-for-6 and Fleetwood was 4-for-5 for UMES, which outhit the Spartans 18-13.
Game 2 was all UMES. Brandon Schott hit a two-run homer off NSU starter
Justin Bhatti in the second. The Hawks scored twice in the fourth – one coming on Wylie's RBI double – then three more times in the fifth. Fleetwood hit an RBI triple and Schott added a run-scoring double to highlight the frame. Wylie added an RBI triple in a four-run Hawks' sixth.
The Spartans scored all four of their runs in the top of the seventh and final inning. Kyriacou hit his first career triple to plate NSU's first two runs. Montgomery knocked him in with a sacrifice fly, and Montgomery scored on Kenney's RBI double.
Kyriacou had two of NSU's five hits in game 2. Cardwell was 1-for-3 to complete his 4-for-9, four-run scored day. Bhatti (2-4) took the loss after yielding 11 hits and six earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched.
Johnson was 3-for-4 for UMES in the nightcap and went 9-for-10 on the day. Fleetwood had five hits in the doubleheader.
Jacob Foreman (4-4) earned the win with a complete game in the nightcap for the Hawks. He struck out six.
The teams conclude their three-game series on Sunday with a noon contest.
