NORFOLK, Va. – Tuli Iosefa drove in seven runs with three hits during Saturday's doubleheader as the Spartan softball team rode another offensive outburst to a second straight doubleheader sweep of Coppin State at the NSU Softball Field.
The Spartans (14-12, 7-5 MEAC) won a pair of games Saturday which were shortened to five innings by the eight-run rule, taking game one 10-2 and game two 14-4 to finish off the four-game weekend sweep. They have now won seven of their last eight games.
In the opener, NSU scored once in the first as
Imani Moore walked and later scored on an Eagle error. But the big damage came in the second, when the Spartans exploded for nine runs.
Jade Dixon's bunt single brought home
Jazzmaine Hammond, who walked earlier in the inning. Iosefa followed with a three-run double. Following a walk and a wild pitch,
Lily Potter singled in both Iosefa and
Brooke Bond to make it 7-0.
Denisha Megginson drew a walk after Potter's hit, and both came home on
Gabby Vaughan's three-run homer that made the score 10-0. In all, the Spartans sent 12 players to the plate in the inning.
The Eagles (1-18, 1-7) scored single runs in the third and fifth innings, but NSU still finished the game in five frames.
Six different players accounted for NSU's six hits in the opener.
Freshman
Kennedy Cameron (1-2) picked up her first collegiate win, working 4.2 innings and allowing just a single hit and one run. Cameron struck out three.
In the nightcap, the Spartans scored all of their runs in the first three innings. For the fourth straight game in the series, NSU jumped out in front in the bottom of the first. Lead-off hitter Moore walked and one out later, Iosefa blasted her fourth homer of the year to give NSU a 2-0 advantage.
The hits kept coming in the second inning. Potter and Iosefa both hit RBI singles and Bond doubled in two more runs in the Spartans' five-run inning.
NSU's biggest inning came in the third as the Spartans erupted for seven runs.
Jazzmaine Hammond singled and a pair of walks to
Alison Guckin and Moore loaded the bases. Potter was hit by a pitch to force in one run, and Iosefa's sacrifice fly plated another.
The big hits of the frame came via Megginson, who hit a two-run single, and pinch hitter
Morgan Hatcher, who smacked her first career home run, a three-run shot that made it 14-0.
CSU got on the board on a two-run homer by Ashley Weimann in the fourth and added two more runs in the fifth, but the Spartans finished off their third straight run-rule game.
NSU stole seven bases in game two, two each by Hammond and Moore.
Joana Holland improved to 2-0 in the circle this year by pitching the first four innings, giving up two earned runs and striking out three.
Iosefa finished the doubleheader 3-for-4 with seven RBIs. Potter drove in four runs on the day and Moore scored five times.
The Spartans are off for nearly two weeks before returning to action April 16-18 at the MEAC Round-Up in Orangeburg, South Carolina.
