ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – The Delaware State softball team (34-16) defeated the Coppin State Eagles (13-27) for the fourth time this season, this time with a 5-2 victory Friday afternoon in the MEAC Tournament to keep its season alive.

With this win, the Hornets will face the No. 2 Hampton Pirates out of the north later today at 3 p.m. in a win or go home situation.  Earlier in the season, DSU opened conference play taking two out of three from HU at home, headlined by a eight-run seventh inning rally in the series opener to win 10-9.

Against the Eagles, meanwhile, the game remained scoreless, until DSU’s Sandy Hawthorne drove in Nicole Gazzola, who singled to lead off the fourth and later advanced to second after a Jessica Madrid ground out.

However, the Eagles battled back to knot the game once again later in the frame with a Gabriel Ziller RBI-double to right center off starter Rachel Meagley (10-5).  Meagley was then replaced by freshman Vanessa Ciocatto (11-5) as she finished the afternoon allowing five hits, no walks and tallying five strikeouts.

The Hornets, on the other hand, answered in the following inning by scoring two runs on four hits with infielder Chloe Oro and Madrid both churning out two-out RBI-singles.

CSU did not go away quietly as Ziller came up huge once again, this time in the sixth with a fielder’s choice RBI to bring in shortstop Candice Van Horn from third, who led off the inning with a single.

In the seventh, the Hornets made it a 5-2 ball game with back-to-back two-out RBI-triples by First Team All-MEAC selections in Gazzola and Madrid.  To secure the victory, despite a runner at first, MEAC Rookie of the Year Tara Tursellino (7) forced outfielder Noelle Edwards to ground out to Jordan Stamps at third for the final out.

At game’s end, DSU tallied 11 hits off CSU’s Alyssa Barker (10-17), led by Gazzola going a perfect 4-for-4 with two runs scored and Madrid turning a 3-for-4 performance with two RBI.