Reed tossed in Coppin State loss at LaSalle

By Keith Henry

PHILADELPHIA- It wasn’t a good day for Coppin baseball when calls don’t go their way and it seems like every bit of contact the Eagles make hits a glove while every bit of contact the LaSalle Explorers made hits the field. LaSalle scored at least a run in every inning but the second in a 10-3 victory over the Eagles this evening at Hank DeVincent Field.

Coppin State was called for three balks in the game that led to two runs for the Explorers on the day. According to head coach Sherman Reed, the Eagles also had some questionable calls not in their favor. In the top of the sixth inning, Reed had enough of it and went out to home plate and discussed things with home plate umpire Harry Greer. After a few words, Greer tossed him out of the game for arguing balls and strikes.

Reed explained after the game that he wanted to stand up for his players saying, “I think that it was building up for a confrontation when you consider it was two very, very questionable balks in key situations. One led to a run scoring from third on a balk call that clearly from every angle I saw was not being close to a balk called on (Zach) Spahn. Then prior to that, Ricky Ferri, with a runner on second, gets a running start and a huge lead. The shortstop yells ‘Step off, Step off.” He steps off and then out of nowhere, the field umpire (Nate Wood) calls a balk. Then when I go up there and ask him to elaborate on how was it a balk. He basically tells me he don’t owe me an explanation because there really was none. When you start seeing things like that and the strike zone jumping all over the place on our kids, at that point, I got to battle for our kids and just let the umpires know that I think they’re having a real bad day. Particularly on the part of the Coppin baseball team.”

Speaking of the game, LaSalle had to scratch it out early in the game to put a run on the board against Coppin starter Ricki Ferri. The Explorers scored single runs in three of the first four innings to jump out to a 3-0 lead. LaSalle head coach Mike Lake said about the game, “Our pitcher (Shane Petrellis) kept us in the game. He threw strikes early on and made them put the ball in play and we made the plays. Then we were able to scratch out one run just about every inning. It was their pitcher trying to shut us down a little bit too. He wasn’t giving us a lot. You got to give Coppin a little bit of credit too. We couldn’t put a lot of runs together because he changes speeds so well, he kept us off balance and we weren’t hitting the ball hard.”

Coppin State (1-13) put something on the board in the seventh inning. Down 7-0, Derek Richards singled to left, then Spahn smashed an RBI double to center field, driving in Richards to cut the deficit to 7-1. Spahn moved to third on an Alex Black ground out to shortstop. Then Andrew Kiessling struck out swinging and Ferri grounded out to third to end the threat.

LaSalle (7-8) came back with a run in the bottom of the seventh and two in the bottom of the eighth to make it 10-1 in the Explorers’ favor.

Coppin tried to come back in the ninth. After Jesse Savage lined out to third and Richards flied out to center, Spahn singled to center. Then Black followed up with a single to left center. A wild pitch from LaSalle pitcher Caolan Ronan moved the runners to second and third. Then Kiessling singled to left, driving in Spahn and Black. Will Butler then grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

Reed said the offense came a little bit too late. But he also said about the game, “Right now when we look at the three phases of the game in hitting, defense and pitching. Two thirds of them we’re doing pretty good. I think we’re fielding the baseball well. I think the pitching is coming along. Ricky Ferri, I had no idea we’re going to get four plus strong innings that we got out of him because he has not really given us much on the mound because he was really recruited as a outfielder and has been asked to learn how to play shortstop. But the hitting is that third module that was just not for whatever reason; we’re not having good at bats there.”

The road trip continues for the Eagles in a few days as they head south on Spring Break for a three-game series at future MEAC member Savannah State and then head to Charleston Southern for a single game with the Buccaneers.