NORFOLK, Va. – The top two baseball teams in the MEAC's Northern Division meet this weekend with first place at stake when Norfolk State hosts Coppin State for a three-game series at Marty L. Miller Field.
 
Due to the threat of storms on Friday, the series schedule has been changed. Friday's scheduled game has been pushed back to Sunday at 1 p.m. The teams will still play a doubleheader starting at noon as scheduled on Saturday.

The Spartans (14-18 overall, 10-5 MEAC North) are one game back of Coppin State (20-14, 11-4) in the division entering the weekend. The three games this weekend will be the last regular-season meetings between the two teams. Following this weekend, both teams have two series remaining, one each against Delaware State and Maryland Eastern Shore.

Scouting the Spartans
NSU has won five of its last seven games overall, and five of its last six MEAC games. The Spartans are coming off a three-game sweep of Maryland Eastern Shore last weekend where NSU flexed its offensive muscle, scoring 56 runs. Forty-four of those runs came in a Friday doubleheader sweep of the Hawks, which set a new school record for runs scored by a Spartan team in a doubleheader.

NSU has raised its team batting average by more than 30 points thanks to its recent tear. The Spartans are now second in the MEAC in hitting, at .283, and lead the MEAC by a wide margin in triples (13), stolen bases (84) and also lead in extra-base hits (98). Nationally, NSU is seventh in stolen bases per game (2.63), 19th in triples per game (0.41) and 58th in doubles per game (1.97).

Sophomore Alsander Womack ranks first in all of Division I in batting (.463), is third in hits per game (1.83) and 11th in on-base percentage (.528). Junior Stephen Baughan paces the MEAC with 15 doubles, sits tied for sixth in the nation in doubles per game (0.5) and is tied for 10th in NSU history for two-baggers in a season. He also is tied for the MEAC lead with five home runs. 

Junior Caleb Ward has a team-high 32 runs batted in, third-most among conference players. Senior Justin Hayes continues to top the MEAC with 21 stolen bases, and ranks tied for 15th nationally with 0.68 per game.

Senior right hander Chase Anderson moved into third place in school history in career strikeouts with his eight punchouts last weekend against MDES. He now has 256 for his career. Anderson (4-2 in 2019, 22-12 in his career) is also two wins away from tying Devin Hemmerich for the school's career record.

Scouting the Eagles
Coppin State has won four straight games after taking the las two games of its series with Delaware State last weekend and a pair of mid-week wins over Mount St. Mary's and Towson on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Eagles are the MEAC's top hitting team, at .284, and rank second in team ERA, at 4.70.

The CSU offense has been paced by junior Justin Banks, a junior college transfer who is second behind Womack among MEAC players in batting average (.402) and leads the MEAC with 37 RBIs. Infielder Erik Crossman (.322) and outfielder Marcos Castillo (.315) also hit over .300 and five other Eagles bat between .280 and .300.

The CSU pitching staff has been strong, with Devin Rivera Ozuna (6-1, 2.96 ERA) and Jahmon Taylor (2-3, 3.13) ranking fifth and sixth, respectively, in the conference in earned-run average.

Last Meetings
The Eagles took two of three from NSU when the teams met on March 29-31 in Hanover, Maryland. NSU won the series-opener 8-7 in 11 innings thanks to three hits from Ward and two apiece by Baughan, Justin Hayes and Adam Collins. CSU rallied for a 12-6 win in game two, then rode a complete game by Rivera Ozuna to a 5-3 win in the series finale.

Live stats and live video for all three games will be available through the links to the top right of the page.