Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 HAMPTON, Va. – The Norfolk State softball team got off to a good start in the three game series with Hampton on Saturday afternoon. The tandem of junior third baseman Whitney Williams and freshman pitcher Marissa Marrero carried NSU to a 5-1 win over HU at the Lady Pirates Softball Stadium.
 
Errors on the Spartans in game 2, though, allowed Hampton to come away with an 8-0 win in five innings. Six of the eight runs scored by Hampton in that second contest were unearned.
 
The Spartans saw their record move to 13-25 overall and 12-5 in the MEAC, while Hampton pushed its overall mark to 19-23 and its MEAC record to 11-5.
 
NSU needs a victory over Hampton on Sunday in the final game of the series to finish as the No. 2 seed in the Northern Division heading into next week's MEAC tournament. A victory coupled with a loss by Delaware State against UMES would give the Spartans a tie for first place in the division, although the Hornets own the tiebreaker over NSU for the No. 1 seed.
 
A loss to the Pirates would drop the Spartans to the third seed. Either way, NSU will open up the conference tournament next Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
 
Williams provided the hitting heroics in game 1, and Marrero did the rest in the circle to help NSU break a five-game losing streak to Hampton.
 
The Spartans struck first with two runs in the top of the third. Junior center fielder Heather Dunning singled to open the inning and eventually reached third on a single by senior right fielder Alina Moriarty. Dunning scored when Williams lined a double off the third base bag, and Moriarty came home on sophomore first baseman Kayla McNair's RBI groundout.
 
The Pirates, meanwhile, lined into a double play with the bases loaded to end the first, and NSU turned a 4-3, inning-ending double play in the third inning, again with the bases loaded.
 
Moriarty walked with one out in the fifth, and Williams launched her seventh homer of the year over the left field fence for a 4-0 lead.
 
Then with two outs in the sixth, sophomore left fielder Devon Bitler and Moriarty singled to put runners on first and second. Hampton left fielder Raenelle Taylor was unable to make a sliding catch on Williams' hit to shallow left, make it 5-0 in favor of the Spartans.
 
Moriarty's second hit of the game moved her into a tie for first place all-time at NSU with 205 career hits. She needs one more to surpass Morgan Boyd's school record.
 
The Pirates got on the board in game 1 with an unearned run in the sixth. Then in the seventh, Marrero snatched a liner with one out and doubled off the runner at first for the third inning-ending double play of the game for NSU.
 
Williams finished 3-for-4 with a run scored and four RBI. Marrero (8-13) gave up three hits and one unearned run in seven innings of work.
 
NSU left 11 runners on base compared to just four for Hampton, all in the first and third innings.
 
Allyson Babinsack (14-10) suffered the loss after allowing four earned runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings of work.
 
Hampton broke game 2 open thanks to three errors on the Spartans in the bottom of the second. Margaret Wilkins hit a two-run single, and four more runs came home on two infield errors. Five of the six runs scored in the inning were unearned.
 
The Pirates scored another unearned run in the fourth, and Babinsack's RBI single in the fifth closed out the game on the eight-run rule.
 
Jailynn Jackson (5-10) gave up just two hits while striking out seven in five innings to earn the victory for Hampton.
 
The two teams will finish out the series on Sunday at noon.