SALISBURY, Maryland – The University of Maryland Eastern Shore baseball team is heading into Easter Sunday with an extra boost of confidence, taking a 5-4 win over visiting Northeast Conference rival Coppin State to complete the weekend sweep at the Henry S. Parker Athletic Complex on Saturday, April 8.
 
It's the first sweep of Coppin for the Hawks (9-21, 7-8 NEC) since March 2015 at Hawk Stadium and moves UMES to sixth in the conference halfway through NEC play.
 
"In baseball a win is a win but taking a series sweep is big for us, especially in the conference standings," interim head coach Shawn Phillips said. "Just going forward, getting a three-game sweep against those guys – they won our conference last year and went to a Regional – we're playing good baseball right now, in sweeping them it shows."
 
The Hawks didn't take long to spring into action, as Brian Cordell led off with a walk, stole second and proceeded to third on a wild pitch. Knocking a deep fly ball to right that would have left the park if not for high winds blowing in, Brantley Cutler drove Cordell in on a sacrifice.
 
Continuing his on-base streak to seven games with a walk to lead off the bottom of the third, Luke Myers quickly took second with a second base and reached third on a groundout. Myers was thrown out at home on a fielder's choice, but it didn't hurt the Hawks when Cutler hit a single for another run, scoring in Cordell for a second time on the afternoon.
 
Two more runs were grabbed by the Hawks in the bottom of the sixth when Cordell put up a sacrifice fly that scored Anders Brown, who reached on a leadoff double, and Dillon Oxyer scored Myers on a sacrifice of his own.
 
Starter Evan Nibblett ended his day before the seventh with a 4-0 lead given to him by his offense but had a clinic on the mound against Coppin. Facing just four over the minimum on the afternoon, Nibblett struck out six to just one walk and five hits.
 
"Nibblett does what he does, I can't say enough good things about him," Phillips said. "Gave us six strong innings when he came out, he did really well, he kept them off balance."
 
Last evening's starter, Noah Covington, and Nibblett combined to give 15 innings without an earned run against Coppin this weekend.
 
"Those are our two top guys, and a lot of these younger guys need to see what they do, how they pitch, how they go about a game," Phillips said. "It's two good guys to look up to, two good guys to lead our staff and any given day they're out there they give us a chance to win."
 
A two-out insurance run was scored by the Hawks in the bottom of the ninth following a single and stolen base by Jason Brown. Using his speed, Brown scored from second on a Cordell single to have the Hawks going into the ninth with a five-run lead.
 
"We're gonna get thrown out some but we're going to stay aggressive," Phillips said. "We had a chance to get some bags and we got one there late, Cordell hit a single to give us a five-run lead which ended up being the game winning run."
 
Drama ensued in the top of the ninth when Coppin was able to cut the Hawk lead to just one with a pinch hit grand slam that put fans on the edges of their seat. Feeling the pressure but not bending, Caden Parker finished out the game with two more outs, completing the sweep for UMES.
 
After setting the season high in hits with 14 on Thursday (April 6) against the Eagles, the squad set new season highs on Saturday in sacrifice flies (three) and stolen bases (seven).
 
As a team, the Hawks batted .300/.371/.433 with 16 runs and 27 hits against Coppin over the three-game stretch.
 
For the week, Jason Brown was electric at .538/.600/.923 over 13 at-bats with a home run, two doubles and two stolen bases. Cutler showed power at the plate with two home runs and a team leading six RBIs.
 
The Hawks wrap up their eight game homestand this Wednesday, April 12 as Navy visits for the first half of a home-and-home starting at 3:00 p.m. in Salisbury. Last season's meeting with the Midshipmen ended in a heartbreaking 5-7 loss that saw Navy grab three late inning runs.

Follow the action on Twitter via @ESHawksBase.