Box Score BALTIMORE, Md. – Ryan Montgomery sparked the offense with a 2-for-3 day, and Chris Horne pitched into the eighth inning to earn his first win of the season as Norfolk State held off Coppin State 7-4 on Friday afternoon at Joe Cannon Stadium.

Montgomery scored twice and knocked in a run in his first start in roughly two weeks. Horne pitched seven scoreless innings before running into trouble in the eighth, but Ray Morton limited the damage to give the Spartans (8-16, 3-4 MEAC North) their third straight conference win.

Robert Reaume helped the Spartans plate their first run in the top of the second as he singled in third baseman Kyle Vaas, who led off the inning with a single. Montgomery singled Vaas to third before Reaume's RBI hit.

Montgomery was also in the middle of things in the fourth as NSU extended its lead to 2-0. He led off with a walk, went to second on a wild pitch by CSU's Myles Taylor and scored on a two-out Eagles' error.

The Spartans got two more in the sixth. Tyon Ore walked to lead off the inning, then Montgomery singled again. One out later, Killian Strenn reached on a bunt single to load the bases. Lead-off man Justin Lee followed with a sacrifice fly to score Ore. With two outs, Strenn stole second, but the throw down to second was wild, allowing Montgomery to score from third to make it 4-0.

NSU kept coming. Zach Markel led off the seventh with a double and scored on Ore's RBI single. In the eighth, Reaume and Strenn led off with back-to-back singles and came around to score on a wild pitch and a double play, respectively, to give the Spartans a 7-0 edge.

CSU (5-18, 2-5)  finally got to Horne in the eighth. The Spartans' right hander walked three and gave up an infield single to allow the Eagles to score their first run. David Hamlett then chased Horne with a two-run double to bring CSU within 7-3.
Morton relieved Horne and walked the first batter he faced, then surrendered an RBI groundout by Chris Godfrey that cut the Spartans' lead to 7-4. But Morton got out of the inning without allowing another run, and worked a 1-2-3 ninth to get his second save of the season.

Horne allowed just six hits in 7.1 innings to go with three walks and three strikeouts. He was charged with all four runs that scored against NSU and earned his first win of the year. It was his second-longest outing of the season.

Taylor (1-4) took the loss after allowing four runs, two earned, in five innings.

NSU out-hit the Eagles 11-6, with six of those hits coming from the bottom third of the Spartans' order. Montgomery and Strenn both went 2-for-3, while Reaume was 2-for-4.

The teams finish their first series meeting of the year with a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday.