SUMMARY
DOVER, Del. - Two homers and seven RBI from Jonathan Gonzalez Perez and seven innings pitched from Richard De Jesus led The Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks to an 11-4 victory over the Delaware State Hornets on Saturday afternoon at Bob Reed Field.Â
THE SCORE
Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (6-24, 5-12) - 11
Delaware State Hornets (3-28, 3-14) - 4
(Series tied 1-1)
HOW IT HAPPENEDÂ
After both teams were held scoreless for the first two innings, Gonzalez Perez crushed a three-run homer over the left field fence, giving UMES a 3-0 lead in the third.Â
Even though Delaware State tallied a run in the bottom of the third, the maroon and grey answered with a Christian Azcona RBI single and a Gonzalez Perez grand slam to increase the Hawks' advantage to seven runs.
De Jesus spun a scoreless fifth and sixth inning on the mound before Azcona added another run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh, increasing their lead to 9-1.Â
Although the Hornets tallied a three-run seventh to narrow the deficit to five, the Hawks, spurred on by Azcona scoring on a wild pitch and Jonathan Rodriguez hitting an RBI single, iced the game with a pair of insurance runs en route to an 11-4 victory.
THE NUMBERS
The Hawks recorded 11 runs on 10 hits and three errors while the Hornets amassed four runs on nine hits and three errors
Gonzalez Perez finished 2-for-5 with a grand slam, a three-run homer, and seven total RBI. The senior from Syracuse, New York, leads the Hawks with nine home runs this season. He joins Henry Clausell as the two Hawks to record multi-home run games. Gonzalez Perez also recorded career highs in RBI and single game home runs
Maryland Eastern Shore has hit three grand slams this season. The Hawks are undefeated in games in which they hit a grand slam
Rodriguez tallied a career-high three hits, finishing 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Julian Jimenez went 2-for-6, recording his eighth multi-hit game of the season
Christian Azcona recorded a multi-RBI game, finishing 1-for-3 at the plate with two RBI
De Jesus tied his career-high for innings pitched with seven innings on the mound. The freshman from Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, earned his first collegiate pitching win
Darrius Brown and Zeke Adderley each recorded a scoreless inning out of the bullpen. This was Adderley's collegiate debut
UP NEXT
The Hawks close both their three-game series at Delaware State and their seven-game road trip on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Dover, DE. Live stats will be available at dsuhornets.com, and the game will be streamed on NEC Front Row.
FOLLOW ALONG
Keep up with the latest from UMES baseball on UMESHawkSports.com and by following along on X (@UMESHawkBase) and Instagram (@umeshawkbase).