Box Score SALISBURY, Md. – Devin Hemmerich picked a perfect time to throw his first complete game of the season, going all nine innings and striking out a season-high nine batters to pitch the Spartans to a 4-2 win over Florida A&M Monday night in a MEAC Championship elimination game at Perdue Stadium.

The Spartans (29-20) advance to Tuesday's 1 p.m. championship round against Bethune-Cookman. NSU must beat the Wildcats twice to win its first-ever MEAC title. The Spartans will be making their seventh appearance in the MEAC championship finale and first since 2014.

Hemmerich (5-4) allowed just eight hits and two runs, one earned. He walked one and struck out nine against the defending MEAC champions and the league's top-hitting team this season.

The Spartans gave Hemmerich some support early, plating a run in the top of the first against FAMU starter Chase Jarrell. Brian Beard hit a one-out single and took second base when FAMU outfielder Peter Jackson bobbled the ball. With two outs, FAMU shortstop A.J. Elkins overthrew first base on Roger Hall's grounder. Beard hustled home on the error to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.

FAMU knotted the score at 1-all in the bottom of the second. Ben Ellzey singled with one out and would later score from third base on a failed pickoff attempt by Hemmerich.

NSU took the lead for good in the fifth. Ismael Herrera led off with a single and later scored on a groundout by Angel Rosario. Alex Mauricio's RBI single in the sixth pushed NSU's lead to 3-1.

The Rattlers cut their deficit in half with a Dylan Dillard solo homer in the eighth, but Denathan Dukes' two-out, run-scoring single in the ninth extended the Spartans' edge to 4-2.

Hemmerich worked around a one-out walk to finish off the Rattlers in the bottom of the ninth. It marked the second time in the last three years that the Spartans eliminated FAMU. The last came in 2014 - and NSU also went on to face Bethune-Cookman in the championship round that year.

Mauricio went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Spartans. Dillard and Alec Wong had two hits each for FAMU.

Jarrell (6-4) took the loss, allowing six hits and three runs (one earned) in six innings for the Rattlers (31-21).