NORFOLK, Va. – Dillon O’Brien pitched 6.1 strong innings, Jeffrey Fitch had three hits and the offense came to life late as Coppin State defeated Delaware State, 6-1, in a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament elimination game at Norfolk State’s Marty L. Miller Field Thursday night.

In a game that ended at 12:06 a.m., the Eagles (12-33 overall) scored five runs over the final three innings to oust the Hornets (30-17) from the MEAC tournament. Delaware State won the MEAC Northern Division regular season title and entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed.

O’Brien held the NCAA leaders in batting average to two hits and one earned run during an outstanding start that helped Coppin State earn a rematch with Florida A&M Friday afternoon in another elimination game beginning at 2:00 p.m. O’Brien retired 19 of the 22 batters he faced and at one point during the game retired 13 consecutive Hornets. Mike Roberts pitched the final 2.2 innings to earn the save for the Eagles.

For Fitch, who paced the Coppin State offense, it was his ninth multi-hit game of the season. He has 11 hits in his last four games. Fitch also has had a trio of three-hit games during that time. He was a big part of Coppin State’s game-deciding four-run outburst in the seventh inning.

David Hamlett, Jack Kraft and Miranda Bryant all had two hits each for Coppin State, which finished with 11 hits overall.

Hamlett led off the seventh inning with his second hit of the game to set the table. Hamlett finished the season with 15 hits against Delaware State over 10 games. Jack Kraft followed with a single and Alex Brown, who doubled earlier in the game, walked to load the bases with nobody out. John Walls executed a perfect suicide squeeze bunt that scored Hamlett and gave Coppin State a 2-1 lead it would not relinquish.

Following Walls’ productive and exciting out, the Eagles went to work as Fitch, Chris Godfrey and Bryant Miranda followed with RBI singles. Overall in the seventh inning, Coppin State collected five hits and sent eight batters to the plate.

Throughout the entire game, Coppin State played liked it wasn’t ready for its season to end. The Eagles consistently applied pressure, ran the bases aggressively and were super patient at the plate. Despite having numerous scoring chances through the first six innings, which included a runner in scoring position in five of those frames, Coppin State had difficulty coming up with the key hit. The Eagles left nine runners on base through the first six innings.

Delaware State scored first when All-MEAC first team leftfielder Aaron Nardone led off the bottom of the second inning with a double, stole third and came home on a throwing error. The lead was short-lived as Hamlett delivered a game-tying RBI double in the top of the third inning to score Miranda, who led off the third inning with a walk.