NORFOLK, Va. – With the MEAC baseball race about to reach the halfway point, the Norfolk State baseball team returns home this weekend for another key four-game conference series against Coppin State. The teams play a single game at 3 p.m. Friday, a doubleheader starting at noon Saturday and another single contest at noon on Sunday, all at Marty L. Miller Field.

The Spartans (11-20 overall, 7-5 MEAC) return home after a split of a four-game set at Florida A&M last weekend in a matchup of the two most recent MEAC tournament finalists. After dropping the first two games, NSU rallied to sweep Sunday's doubleheader with the Rattlers, 6-2 and 7-4. MEAC Co-Pitcher of the Week Danny Hosley threw his fifth straight complete game in the game one win on Sunday, and Michael Portela's 3.1 hitless innings of relief in game two helped the Spartans achieve a split of the series. Outfielder Phillip Boykin tallied four hits over the doubleheader.

For the weekend, Jacob Council had six hits while Boykin and Hosley added five apiece.

Entering the weekend, several Spartans rank highly in a number of statistical categories at the conference level. Alsander Womack leads the MEAC in hits (37), runs (28) and doubles (seven), while ranking sixth in batting (.343). Dionte Brown (13), Womack and Ty Hanchey (nine each) are the top three in the MEAC in stolen bases. Korey Singh and Mason Velasquez are tied for third in the conference with four home runs apiece.

Pitching wise, Hosley ranks first in the MEAC in complete games, second in strikeouts (47) and third in ERA (2.33).

Coppin State enters the weekend at 5-17 overall, 3-8 in the MEAC after dropping all three games of its series last weekend against Delaware State. The Eagles come into this weekend with a .279 team batting average, second-best in the conference. Freshman Darren Hagan leads the way at .346, fifth-best in the MEAC. He is also third in the MEAC in RBIs (21), fourth in slugging percentage (.506) and fifth in runs scored (22). Conner Walker is second in the MEAC in slugging percentage (.61) and RBIs (24).

This marks the second of three weekend series between the teams this year. They also met March 27-28 in Hanover, Maryland, with NSU winning three of four. The Eagles scored eight times in their final at-bat to win the series opener 13-12, but the Spartans rallied to win the next three games by a combined score of 23-9.

Live stats and live video for this weekend's series are available through the links at the top of the page.