CONWAY, Ark. – Weather played a major factor as Coppin State's softball team dropped a pair of toughly contested games to open the season Friday night at the Central Arkansas Invitational. The Eagles dropped a 3-2 heartbreaker to Stephen F. Austin before dropping a 16-7 decision to Louisiana-Monroe later in the night.
Hatika James led Coppin against the Lady Jacks as her RBI single in the second inning tied the score at one as
Patricia Soria scored after reaching on a single. A junior from Stockton, Calif, James then homered to left field, giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead as she went 2-for-3 for the game.
Stephen F. Austin was able to tie the score in its half of the fifth on a sacrifice fly as
Aysha Richardson relieved
Madison Didion with a runner on.
Both teams put runners on in the sixth but failed to score but the Lady Jacks got three-straight singles with two outs in the seventh to win it 3-2.
Soria also had a two-hit game for the Eagles who got solid pitching from Didion and Richardson. In the no-decision, Didion allowed just one earned run on four hits in 4.0 innings while striking out five. Richardson got the loss by allowing one run on four hits in 2.2 innings.
Against Louisiana Monroe, Coppin got out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Richardson led off the bottom half with a single and scored as
Megan Narvaez singled right after and advanced to third on an error. A walk issue to
Cloe' Ochoa followed by a groundout put two runners in scoring position and Soria drove both in with a single up the middle.
The Warhawks got a run back in the second but RBI's by Richardson and Ochoa extended Coppin's lead to 5-1. James singled with one out to start the rally before a double by Richardson to the gap in left center scored her. A groundout advanced Richardson to third before scoring on Ochoa's base knock up the middle.
Louisiana-Monroe then scored four in the third to tie the game and put another two on the board in the fourth. Midway through the third, with the score tied at five
Dakota Gartrell relieved
Megan Brogden in the circle before Brogden re-entered with one out in the fifth with the Eagles trailing, 9-5.
One of Brogden's inherited runners scored to make it a five-run deficit but Copin fought back, scoring two runs to make it 10-7 after its half of the inning. Soria drew a one-out walk and
Nicole Ullman singled her over to second before a pinch hit single by
Nicole Bravo loaded the bases.
Nia Bowe then came through with two-run single to the gap but that was all the Eagles would get.
ULM then scored six runs in the top of the sixth thanks to six hits and a pair of errors to make it 16-7 game. Coppin put a pair in scoring position in its half but were unable to get the needed runs to advance the game to seven innings.
Richardson, Narvaez and Bowe all had two-hit games against the Warhawks while Ochoa, Brogden and Soria each reached twice with a hit and a walk.
In the start and relief, Brogden got the no-decision, allowing eight earned in 4.0 innings of work. Gartrell took the loss by allowing five earned in 2.0 innings.
With weather causing many schedule changes, Coppin will now take on Arkansas Pine-Bluff at 3 pm on February 24 before taking on the host Bears, followed by the University of Kansas on February 25 at 9 and 11 am, respectively.
