March 28, 2011

Box Score

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - Zach Spahn batted 3-for-3 with five RBI and Chris Kashangaki was 3-for-4 with four runs scored as Coppin State rallied to salvage the third game of a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference baseball series from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 11-7, at Hawks Stadium Monday.

UMES (3-20, 2-1 MEAC) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning but allowed CSU (3-18, 1-2) to score 10 runs from the second to the fourth innings.

Black College Baseball Player of the Week Bryan Chaikowsky (Bethlehem, Pa.) led the Hawks' 12-hit offense, going 2-for-5 with hits sixth double and two RBI, while Franklin Armstrong (Trenton, N.J.) collected three hits.

Coppin State right-hander Andrew Kiessling (1-2) threw a complete game for the win. UMES led off the game with three straight hits to take a 1-0 lead. James Newsome (Mechanicsville, Md.) tripled and Tre-Von Johnson followed with a single for the lead. Chaikowsky then doubled Johnson to third with no one out.

Luis Mena (Cape Coral, Fla.) and Nick Wiggins (Littleton Colo.) tallied consecutive sacrifice flies to extend the UMES lead to three.

In the second, Spahn ripped a two-run double with Kashangaki and Jesse Savage aboard to cut the deficit to 3-2 through one-and-a-half innings.

The Eagles got to UMES right-hander Karim Gonzalez (Mexico City, Mexico) for six in the third. Coppin State scored six runs on six hits to vault out to an 8-2 bulge.

Six straight players reached base on five hits and a walk as Savage, Kashangaki and Spahn each contributed RBI singles. Jim Vagnier added a two-run double with two out to cap the outburst.

Trailing, 10-3, in the bottom of the fourth Jeffrey Fleetwood (Delmar, Md.) had an RBI groundout as the Hawks manufactured a run. With one out Wiggins singled and Armstrong doubled before Fleetwood's ground ball to second made it 10-4.

Spahn hit his second sacrifice fly of the day in the top of the sixth to get the run back for the Eagles, but UMES mounted a comeback in the seventh and eighth frames.

Stephen Bull (Millsboro, Del.) reached on catcher's interference to load the bases following a Fleetwood base hit and Shaquille Bagwell (Atlantic, Va.) pinch-hit walk in the seventh. After quick two outs, Chaikowsky singled home two, shaving the CSU advantage to 11-6.

Armstrong scored on a passed ball with one out in the eighth, but UMES got no closer. Kiessling allowed five earned runs and one walk while Gonzalez (1-5) took the loss for UMES in three innings, giving up eight runs (all earned) on eight hits.

UMES travels to play Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa., for a single game Wednesday. First pitch at Goodman Campus is scheduled for 3 p.m.