Alejandro Jimenez and Ryan Durrence knocked in three runs apiece, and right hander Hiram Burgos pitched five shutout innings to lead No. 1 seed Bethune-Cookman to a 12-3 win over No. 6 Norfolk State in the first round of the MEAC Baseball Championship on Thursday at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
The Wildcats (30-26) receive a bye on Friday and advance to Saturday’s 2 p.m. winner’s bracket final. NSU (20-22) faces the loser of Thursday’s Delaware State-North Carolina A&T game at 10 a.m. Friday.
Bethune-Cookman got off to a fast start, plating three runs in its first at-bat. C.J. Lauriello grounded an RBI single up the middle to score Mark Brooks with the game’s first run. Jimenez made it 3-0 with a two-run single chopped over the infield to right.
Jimenez extended the Wildcats’ lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the third with an RBI single through the infield.
The Wildcats opened the game up with four runs in the bottom of the fourth. Durrence and Emmanuel Castro hit consecutive RBI singles. After a walk to Jimenez loaded the bases, Chris Brown delivered a two-run single to center to stretch the Wildcats’ advantage to 8-0.
NSU scored its first run in the top of the sixth. John Lynch off with a single to right field off B-CU reliever Rayan Gonzalez. He advanced to third on a Wildcat error and scored on a fielder’s choice grounder by Brandon Hairston.
Jeremy Davis added an RBI single in the sixth for B-CU. Durrence plated two more with a single in the eighth.
NSU scored on a two-out RBI single by Drew Suttmiller in the top of the eighth and on Lynch’s run-scoring double in the ninth for the final margin.
Burgos (6-3) earned the win for B-CU, allowing just two hits over five scoreless innings. He walked one and struck out six. Quinn Bright was saddled with the loss for NSU after allowing 12 hits and eight runs, four earned, over four innings.
Lauriello, Durrence and Castro each had three of the Wildcats’ 16 hits. Lauriello also scored five times.
Lynch and Chris Warren had three hits apiece for the Spartans.
Admission for the 2009 MEAC Baseball Championship is $8 for adults and $4 for children ages four and older, students and senior citizens. Ticket prices for the entire tournament are $20 for adults and $10 for children ages four and older, students and senior citizens. Children ages three (3) and under are admitted free. Tickets are available at the Jackie Robinson Ballpark, 105 E Orange Ave, Daytona Beach, Florida beginning on May 14.
For more information on MEAC Baseball, logo on to www.meacsports.com.