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NORFOLK, Va. – Bethune-Cookman scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to break open a close game, and the Wildcats cruised to a 9-0 win over Norfolk State in a winner's bracket semifinal game on Friday morning at Marty L. Miller Field.
With the win, the Wildcats (32-24) advance to Saturday's 12 p.m. winner's bracket final against the winner of Friday's second game between Delaware State and Maryland Eastern Shore. The Spartans (22-27) will play North Carolina A&T in an elimination game at approximately 3:30 p.m. Friday.
B-CU outhit the Spartans 16-3, with David Lee accounting for four of the Wildcats' hits.
The contest started off as a pitcher's duel between two sophomores, B-CU right hander Montana Durapau and NSU southpaw Ryan VanAssche. But the Wildcats scratched across a run in the bottom of the third to end the deadlock. Jairo Acevedo led off with a single and moved up on a passed ball. He went to third on a Brandon turner single which the Spartan defense lost in the sun, and scored on a bloop single by David Lee.
The score remained 1-0 until the fifth, when B-CU broke it open with a seven-run frame. The Wildcats pounded out seven hits in the inning. Lee had a two-run double and Brashad Johnson hit a run-scoring double. Turner, Anthony Stokes and Alejandro Sanchez chipped in with RBI singles and Josh Johnson added a sacrifice fly.
Stokes added another RBI single in the eighth to account for the final margin.
Lee finished 4-for-5 with three RBI. Turner, Stokes, Johnson and Acevedo had two hits apiece. Turner scored two runs and Stokes knocked in a pair.
Durapau (4-6) allowed just three hits and struck out six over eight innings. He did not walk a batter and retired 15 in a row in one stretch.
VanAssche (4-7), allowing seven hits and five runs, four earned, with two walks and eight strikeouts in four-plus innings.
Chris Warren, James Taylor and Tyon Ore had NSU's base hits.