SALISBURY, Md. – Ty Hanchey's sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth supplied the winning run, and Norfolk State locked up the No. 1 seed from the Northern Division in the 2019 MEAC tournament with a 3-2 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday morning at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium.
The Spartans (21-21, 16-7 MEAC) rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win in their final at-bat for the third straight game. NSU topped the Hawks 6-5 in 10 innings Friday and Delaware State 3-2 in 10 innings last Sunday.
With the win Saturday morning, NSU is assured of no worse than a tie for the regular-season divisional title with Coppin State. CSU (15-8) plays at Delaware State this afternoon in the third game of their series. NSU's final game of the weekend vs. MDES has been moved up to 7 p.m. Saturday due to the Sunday forecast. The Spartans hold the tie-breaker with CSU for the top seed in the division, and can win the title outright with either a CSU loss or an NSU win Saturday.
The Spartans got off to a slow start Saturday morning against MDES (10-41, 4-19) starter Marty Tolson. NSU did not get a hit until the fifth inning, and the Hawks scratched across runs in the third and fifth to take a 2-0 lead into the latter innings.
NSU tied it in the sixth.
Brandon Crosby led off with a single and stole second. He scored when the Hawks misplayed
Justin Hayes' grounder. Hayes would eventually steal third and score on
Caleb Ward's sacrifice fly.
The score would remain that way until the ninth. Like he did in the 10
th inning Friday,
Stephen Baughan started the rally by reaching on a one-out base hit. He took third on
Korey Singh's single. After an intentional walk, Hanchey pinch hit and lofted a sacrifice fly that allowed Baughan to score.
Seth Hockett worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to finish off the win and collect his second save of the year.
Justin Walton (1-0) picked up the win by pitching a scoreless eighth inning. He struck out two, including a punch-out of Peter Jamieson with runners on second and third to end the inning.
Johnny Franco (2-1) was saddled with the loss after giving up two hits and one run in two innings of relief. Tolson took a no-decision, allowing two unearned runs and striking out seven in seven innings.
Singh (2-for-4) had two of NSU's five hits on the day.