Jordan Hamberg had a quality start of the mound and added a pair of hits and two RBI at the plate in Coppin State baseball’s 6-2 MEAC victory over Maryland Eastern Shore on Saturday afternoon at Perdue Stadium. With the win, the Eagles (15-22, 11-9) split the four-game series with the Hawks and remain in first in the league standings.
A sophomore from South Plainfield, N.J., who is also up for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award, Hamberg allowed just one earned run on four hits while striking out six batters in 6.2 innings of work. Hamberg also went 2-for-5 with two RBI at the plate.
Wellington Balsley also had a two-hit, two RBI performance for the Eagles which included a triple while Corey Miley and Brian Nicolas also had two hits on the day. Nicolas also scored twice while Matt Day drew a pair of walks.
Rashad Ruff closed out the game for Coppin, allowing just one base hit with three strikeouts over the final 2.1 innings.
After three scoreless innings to start the game, CSU got on the board first with a pair of runs in the fourth as Josh Hankins reached on an error which scored Balsley. Later that inning, Hankins scored on Sebastien Sarabia’s sacrifice fly.
Balsley collected an RBI single in the fifth to make it a three-run game before the Hawks put a run across in the sixth to cut Coppin’s lead to 3-1. Balsley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in seventh to extend the advantage back to three-runs before Hamberg helped his own cause with a two-run single to right, driving in Nicolas and Day.
The Hawks got an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh, which ended Hamberg’s day on the mound, but Ruff struck out the final batter of the inning. Both teams stranded runners in the eighth before Ruff tossed a 1-2-3 ninth.