Box Score | Updated Bracket


NORFOLK, Va., May 10, 2023 -- North Carolina Central scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth on its way to a 7-4 win over the No. 2 seed Norfolk State Spartans on Wednesday afternoon in the 2023 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball Championship at the NSU Softball Field. 

The third-seeded Eagles advanced to Thursday’s 6 p.m. winner’s bracket contest against the sixth-seeded Eagles of Coppin State. Both programs are in search of their first-ever appearance in the championship final.

The Spartans fell to the elimination bracket and will face Howard at 3 p.m. on Thursday. 

The Eagles got on the board to start the game at the top of the first, when Makiya Graves gave N.C. Central an early 1-0 lead by scoring on an RBI groundout. 

The Eagles added a run in the top of the fifth when Graves hit a double to center field that scored Ivory Jones. 

Norfolk State tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom half of the fifth, when Gabby Vaughan hit her eighth home run of the season, a blast that also scored Yrral Davis.

N.C. Central would explode in the top of the sixth, when Jaden Davis got the scoring started with a shot over the left field fence. A few batters later, Graves hit a single to left field that scored Morgan Green; Jaidyn Hamby followed Green’s single with one of her own that scored Ashanti Eubanks and Graves. 

The final run of the inning came when Takia Nichols picked up the RBI on an infield single that scored Jai’lyn Edwards to give the Eagles a 7-2 lead.  

Norfolk State added two runs in the bottom of the sixth, when Morgan Johnson recorded her second home run of the season by taking a 2-1 pitch the distance that also scored Jade Dixon.

Grave, Jones, and Eubanks each had two hits in the win, and Hamby added three RBIs. Eubanks struck out five in the circle to pick up her seventh win of the season.