April 5, 2009
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The University of Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team scored two runs in each of the first three innings, but Norfolk State's Anselmo Cantu hit two home runs to spur the Spartans to a 9-6 come-from-behind win at Hawks Stadium Sunday.
UMES, which dropped to 8-23 and 6-3 in the MEAC with the loss, won both games of Saturday's doubleheader after falling behind. Sunday, NSU (7-12, 4-4) salvaged the final game of the weekend series battling back in similar fashion.
UMES starter Karim Gonzalez (Mexico City, Mexico) was perfect through three innings and left after five in line for the win before The Hawks' bullpen faltered. Brian White (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Russel Deutschmann (Baden, Ontario) combined to give up the final four runs.
UMES catcher Ben Vasko (San Diego, Calif.) went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored, while center fielder Phil Vaughn (Clinton, Md.) was two 2-for-4. Cantu was one of three Spartans with two hits on the day. He scored three times and drove in three more.
Franklin Armstrong (Trenton, N.J.) opened the scoring with a two-out, two-RBI single to right field, scoring Deutschmann and Pat Hercinger (Papillion, Neb.)
UMES made it 4-0 in the second on consecutive doubles by Vasko and Remo Orsini (Elkton, Md.) with no outs. Dunham then hit into a double play with Vaughn on first, moving Orsini to third. Orsini later scored on a wild pitch.
The lead grew to six runs in the third when Elliott Alston (Littleton, Colo.) doubled down the left-field line scoring Armstrong and Vasko tripled to right center, all with two outs.
John Lynch (2-for-5, one run scored) began the fourth with NSU's first hit, a single to left, and came around to score to cut the UMES lead to 6-1. Lynch was sacrificed to second and moved to third later on an error by Alston. Drew Suttmiller picked Lynch up from third on a fielder's choice to Orsini at short.
Barker kept the Hawks hitless in the fourth and fifth and the Spartans tagged Gonzalez and White for five in the sixth to tie the game, 6-6.
Cantu led off the inning with his first homer of the day, a solo shot to right. Two walks and a throwing error from Vasko later, White served up a two-RBI double by Patrick Hall and uncorked a wild pitch to make it 6-5. NSU pulled even when Zaine Jack doubled down the left-field line, scoring Cameron Parsons from second.
The Hawks scratched out a pair of hits in the bottom of the inning, but left Vaughn and Vasko stranded on first and third.
The Spartans took the lead, 7-6, in the seventh. Cantu started the inning with a walk and stole second. Brandon Hairston singled advancing Cantu to third, before he came home on a double-play ball.
Cantu belted his second home run of the game to left in the top of the ninth to pad the Norfolk State lead and Ryan Davis closed out Hawks in the bottom of the inning to ensure the win and earn his first save.
Barker improved to 2-2 on the year going six innings and allowing four earned runs. He scattered nine hits and a walks while striking out two.
White (0-3) was saddled with the loss after allowing all three of the runners he inherited from Gonzalez to score. He also gave up two runs of his own in two innings on four hits and a walk.
Gonzalez surrendered just two hits in his five-plus innings. He was charged with five runs (four earned) and five walks.
The Hawks embark on a seven-game road trip starting Wednesday with a doubleheader with Saint Peter's. The first game is slated to begin at 4 p.m., in Jersey City, N.J.
