NORFOLK, Va. – The Norfolk State baseball team caps a nine-game stretch of road games this weekend with a trip to Delaware State for a four-game MEAC series.
The teams play a 3 p.m. game Thursday at Bob Reed Field, a noon doubleheader Friday and a fourth game at noon Saturday.
The series is the second of three between the teams this season, and only one to be played in Dover. The Spartans (10-20, 7-9 MEAC) dropped three of four to the Hornets (11-15, 8-8) earlier this month in Norfolk.
NSU-DSU Short-Hops
- The Spartan offense has picked up its production lately. The Spartans have scored at least eight runs in three of their last five games, with season highs in runs (19) and hits (18) in the game 3 win at Coppin State. NSU added 16 hits in its loss Tuesday at Richmond, its second-highest tally of the year.
- Several Spartans have swung a hot bat lately. Shortstop Brandon Cleveland is on a seven-game hitting streak and had a season-high three hits at Richmond. Tanner Brandon had three two-hit games at Coppin State, including a pair of homers. And Steven Shaffer has seven hits in his last three games (7-of-13), with a pair of three-hit efforts against Coppin State and at Richmond.
- With two RBIs at Richmond on Tuesday, center fielder Dionte Brown now has a MEAC-high 30 runs batted in for the year.
- Brown (sixth, .316), Jacob Council (fourth, .327) and Raphy Rodriguez (eighth, .307) rank among the MEAC's top 10 in batting average.
- The Spartans' 1-3 series against the Hornets on April 1-3 was the only one of NSU's four MEAC weekends so far that the Spartans didn't go 2-2. Three of the four games were decided by two runs or less.
- The Hornets split their four-game series at Maryland Eastern Shore last weekend. After dropping the opener 15-0, DSU battled back to win two of the last three, including a 4-2 win in the finale that featured two solo home runs by preseason MEAC Player of the Year Trey Paige.
- Paige leads the MEAC in batting (.375) and home runs (six). The Hornets have hit 17 home runs as a team, second among conference clubs.
- DSU is the best fielding team in the conference thus far. The Hornets have committed just 36 errors as a team, 15 fewer than the next closest team.
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