Box Score Updated Bracket

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Vanessa Washington hit a pair of home runs and drove in five runs to lead Delaware State to a 10-2 win over the Norfolk State softball team on Friday morning in a MEAC tournament elimination game at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.
 
Washington hit 2-for-4 with two runs and five RBI, while Sandy Hawthorne batted 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI to lead the Hornets on offense. DSU (29-17) piled up 12 hits in the game.
 
NSU saw its season come to a close at 18-25. The Hornets advanced to the next round of the conference tournament, where they will face Savannah State at 3 p.m. today in another elimination game.
 
Hawthorne also hit a home run for DSU, a two-run shot over the fence in left center for a 2-0 lead in the first. The Hornets made it 4-0 in the third thanks to four straight singles and a sac fly by Rochelle Sablay.
 
The Spartans got a run back in the bottom of the third when senior Megan Dunning doubled home junior Devon Bitler from third.
 
DSU, though, got an RBI triple from Nicole Gazzola in the fourth, a three-run homer from Washington in the fifth and then a two-run shot by Washington in the seventh to cap its scoring.
 
NSU scored its second run of the game in the seventh when freshman Stephanie Davenport tripled past a diving Sabrina Quarles in right and then scored on freshman Kylee Lopez' single into left.
 
Nicole Brock (13-6) earned the win in relief for Delaware State, pitching 3.1 innings and allowing one hit and no runs with two strikeouts.
 
Dunning had two of NSU's six hits in the game.
 
She and her twin sister, Heather Dunning, closed their careers out at NSU as the team's only two active seniors in the tournament. Heather competed all four years with the Spartans, while Megan played three years at Norfolk State after transferring from junior college.
 
Heather Dunning earned second-team All-MEAC honors during her sophomore year in 2014 after hitting .401, becoming the fifth different Spartan player to hit at least .400 in the program's Division I era. She hit .351 for her career in 163 games. She ranked third all-time at NSU with 181 career hits as well as ninth in at bats (515) and tied for 14^th in games started (161) while compiling 103 runs, nine doubles, two triples, one home run, 53 RBI, 31 walks, 25 stolen bases, 14 sacrifice hits and a .394 on-base percentage.
 
Megan Dunning enjoyed a career season this year playing mostly in right field, hitting .308 and leading the team with 14 doubles, 30 RBI and a .615 slugging percentage while also adding 19 runs, one triple, four home runs and 11 walks. She finished her career with a .275 average in 76 games with totals of 34 runs, 42 hits, 17 doubles, one triple, five home runs, 37 RBI and 21 walks.