ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Hampton advanced to the championship game of the 2013 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Championships on Friday afternoon with a 3-1 semifinal win over Savannah State.
The Lady Pirates have won 14 of their 16 games and four in a row.
Hampton (33-23), the Northern Division’s top seed, will play for its first MEAC title since 1996 on Saturday at 1 p.m., squaring off against whichever team emerges from the loser’s bracket on Friday evening.
The Lady Pirates struck first in the bottom of the first inning, when freshman Taylor McCoy doubled to right center field, scoring freshman Diamond Ponds to give Hampton a 1-0 lead.
McCoy gave the Lady Pirates a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third, driving in Ponds, who had reached on a two-out double, with a single to right field.
Savannah State (26-23) struggled offensively, but pushed across a run in the top of the sixth inning when Torrian Wright, the MEAC Rookie of the Year, singled and Ariona Haggod scored on an error to cut the lead to 2-1.
However, the Lady Tigers only had three hits on the day.
Hampton answered in the bottom of the sixth inning with an insurance run; after senior Adrianna Scott doubled to left center field and advanced to third on a groundout, sophomore Kerissa Burruel singled her home to put Hampton up 3-1.
McCoy and Burruel each went 2-for-3 at the plate, and McCoy drove in a team-high two runs. Ponds scored two runs for the Lady Pirates.
Sophomore Jailynn Jackson, the MEAC Pitcher of the Year, picked up her 26th win of the season, recording her 25th complete game of the season. She scattered three hits and struck out eight batters.
The only run she allowed was unearned; for the season, Jackson has a 2.49 ERA.
Jackson, who has 21 strikeouts so far in the MEAC Championships, has 244 strikeouts this season – leaving her two shy of tying the program single-season record of 246, set by Tara Midgett in 1995. Jackson is also currently tied for the second-most wins in a single season in program history.