BALTIMORE, Md. – The Norfolk State softball team completed a three-game sweep of Coppin State on Sunday in a 7-6 win over the Eagles in MEAC action. CSU nearly made a come back scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh and runner on third, but Alexis Robinson induced back-to-back groundouts to third and herself that secured the Spartans' sixth MEAC victory of the season.
Starting off a little slower than yesterday, the Spartans got on the scoreboard in the second inning when Loren Hudson knocked a single that scored Cam Andersen. Andersen has reached on a fielders' choice and was on second at the time of Hudson's hit.
Lily Potter opened the third with a single to center field and after reaching second, she advance to third on a wild pitch. She came all the way around when Kenna Higa hit a sacrifice fly to center field. The run extended the lead to two after three complete innings.
The fourth saw Alison Guckin lead off with a single to center and then steal second base. Davis followed up with a single to center that allowed Guckin to come home. After a pitching change, the Eagles got the first out of the inning on a fly out to center, but Hudson followed up with her second hit of the game, a double to left, that Davis used to score and extend the lead to four heading into the bottom of the inning.
CSU used back-to-back doubles in the bottom half of the frame to score its first run against the Spartans since the third inning of game one yesterday.
A single by Moore to lead off the fifth was accompanied by Vaughan getting her second hit of the game on a deep ball to left field that allowed Moore to come home and put the lead at four. With two outs in the bottom half of the inning, CSU loaded the bases with two singles and a hit batter. However Brierra Tyler was able to secure her fifth strikeout of the game to prevent any Eagles runs from being added to the score board.
But Tyler was not done, after getting out of the rough spot, she led off the top of the sixth with a deep homerun to left for her first career hit. However the Eagles responded in the bottom of the inning with a pair of runs on two hits to cut into the NSU lead, 6-3.
Davis, who walked, advanced to third on a fielding error by the shortstop that allowed Andersen to reach first. Hannah Jessie came into pinch run for Andersen, and was caught stealing, but it allowed to score Davis from third to put the Spartans ahead 7-3.
The bottom of the seventh saw the Eagles get two hits with one out to put runners on first and third. Robinson came into pitch but gave up back-to-back doubles scoring three runs and pulling CSU within one with a runner on second. A groundout to third advanced the runner to third and a groundout to Robinson in the circle closed out the win for the Spartans.
Tyler earned the win and Robinson picked up her first save of the season.
Over the three-game series, the Spartans collected 30 hits and scored 20 runs. NSU has won the past 10 games in the series dating back to 2019.
The Spartans (21-15, 6-3 MEAC) remain on the road next weekend when they travel to Orangeburg, S.C. to take on South Carolina State in a three-game series. First pitch of game one against the Bulldogs is schedule for 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 9.
