DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After two long rain delays, Norfolk State will have to wait until Thursday to get resolution to its first-round MEAC Baseball Tournament game with Bethune-Cookman.
The Spartans and Wildcats were tied 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth when the game was suspended due to inclement weather shortly after 9 p.m., some 3 hours, 45 minutes into the second rain delay of the game. The contest will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday from Embry-Riddle's Sliwa Stadium, and NSU has two runners on with no outs in the last of the ninth.
The game began just before 1 p.m. and endured a rain delay of 1 hour, 42 minutes in the sixth inning before the first storm cell hit the Daytona area.
Lengthy delays aside, the game has not lacked for action to this point. The Spartans, the MEAC North No. 2 seed, jumped on South No. 3 seed B-CU early with four runs in the bottom of the first thanks to two home runs. Sophomore DH
Stephen Baughan hit a three-run shot for his seventh homer of the year and senior catcher
Ismael Herrera hit the first homer in his career, a solo shot, to give NSU a 4-0 lead.
B-CU scored the next three runs, two on a single by Adonis Lao in the second and another on an NSU error in the third. NSU then plated three straight runs to back in front by four, thanks to Baughan's RBI single in the third,
Alsander Womack's sacrifice fly in the fourth and a wild pitch that plated
Mikey Delgado later in the same frame.
But the Wildcats again rallied. After the first rain delay, Danny Rodriguez hit an RBI double in the top of the seventh to bring B-CU within 7-4. The Wildcats then plated three two-out runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game. Michael Deeb hit an RBI single and Jameel Edney a two-run double to knot the score.
The top two hitters in the Spartans' lineup,
Justin Hayes and Womack, drew walks to lead off the bottom of the ninth before the second storm hit the area just after 5 p.m.
The NSU-BCU loser will turn right around and face Maryland Eastern Shore 30 minutes following the conclusion of the suspended game on Thursday in an elimination game. MDES lost to Florida A&M, 14-4, in the only completed game from the first day of action.
The NSU-BCU winner will face North Carolina A&T, the No. 1 seed from the MEAC South, in the second full game of Thursday's slate. The Aggies and Coppin State (MEAC North No. 1 seed) received first-round byes Wednesday.
