Bethune-Cookman Clinches Regular Season Title with UMES Win
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The Wildcats battled out a pitcher's duel through the early innings of Sunday's finale with Maryland Eastern Shore. Beginning in the sixth, the B-CU offense picked up steam while the Wildcat defense held UMES off in the 7-3 win to sweep the Hawks and remain perfect in MEAC play, clinch the MEAC regular season crown and earn the number one seed for the conference tournament.
Matt Wright opened up the scoring for the Wildcats in game three, as the left hander hit a high drifting solo homer beyond the right field fence to take the 1-0 lead.
Brashad Johnson's fifth inning triple to right field set up designated hitter Anthony Stokes' groundout RBI to create a little more breathing room at 2-0, as Johnson crossed home on the play.
Much like the first games of the series, UMES played tough defense and held B-CU's hitters without any further runs through the fifth inning, but it's difficult to keep B-CU down for long.
In the sixth frame, Matt Wright reached with a base on balls, Ryan Durrence followed with a double slightly inside the left field line, and Emmanuel Castro made the most of the opportunity with a two RBI single to center field. A stand-up RBI double by DJ Leonard to the left side made it three straight hits with consecutive runs for B-CU to move on top 5-0.
Alejandro Sanchez crossed home plate to make it three straight innings with a B-CU run, as Wright put up another RBI on a single to left in the seventh.
The Hawks cut the lead to four in a bottom of seventh response of a two RBI single, moving the score to 6-2.
In the top of the ninth, the Wildcats put up some additional insurance with B. Johnson scoring again on a light hit in the left infield for an RBI single.
After Chris Anselmo made a solid showing to keep UMES off the board in the eighth, followed by Julio Morales, who entered in the ninth to shut the door on the Hawks. UMES batted in one on an RBI squeeze, wrapping up the game on a swinging strikeout in the 7-3 win.
Starter Patrick Goelz (6-3) had an outstanding day on the mound, throwing seven innings with 11 strikeouts, no earned runs, and just a single walk.
Leading the Wildcats at the plate, Matt Wright went 2-4 with two RBI and two runs scored. Brashad Johnson and Alejandro Sanchez also went 2-4 each on the day.
The Wildcats (29-19, 15-0 MEAC) have one key MEAC week remaining, with Delaware State (22-21, 10-4 MEAC) coming to town for next weekend's B-CU senior day.
For the complete story, visit www.bcuathletics.com or www.umeshawks.com
Hornets Sting Aggies For Series Win
Dover, Del. (May 1, 2011) --- Delaware State's Elliot Gardner tossed his second straight complete game and his teammates racked out 16 hits in an 11-1 victory over North Carolina A&T at Soldier Field this afternoon. The Hornets won two of the three games in the series to improve to 23-21 overall and 11-4 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The Aggies fell to 15-29 and 6-8.
Gardner allowed just two hits while striking out five to improve to 4-5 this season. Delaware State led 7-0 when North Carolina A&T scored its only run on a solo homer by Luke Tendler in the top of the sixth inning. The Middletown (Del.) High School product has allowed just 10 hits and two runs, while striking out 13 in his last 20 innings of work.
Five Delaware State players had at least two hits in the contest. Troy Drummond and Cameron Cecil each had three hits, while Keith Hernandez, Scott Davis and Brandon Crist collected two each.
The Hornets opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Drummond drove in the first run on an infield single and Davis doubled in a run in the inning.
Delaware State opened up a 4-0 lead when Crist doubled with one out in the fourth and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Hernandez.
The Hornets scored three runs in the fifth, including two on a double by Tony Gatto, to take a 7-0 lead.
Delaware State closed out the scoring with four runs in the eighth inning. Jose Portela and Crist drove in the first two runs on sacrifice flies. The Hornets added their third run of the inning when Aaron Nardone scored on a wild pitch. DSU led 10-1 when Drummond singled in Gatto to end the game due to the 10-run rule.
Davis upped his season average to .443, tops in the MEAC and third among all NCAA Div. I players. He also leads the conference with 70 hits.
For the complete story, visit www.dsuhornets.com or www.ncataggies.com
Other MEAC scores:
Florida A&M 7, Coppin State 5