Lady Eagles take three at South Carolina State

by Keith Henry

ORANGEBURG, SC- Coppin State head coach Larry Hineline couldn't have been happier with the way his Lady Eagles opened up their softball season at Lady Bulldog Field against South Carolina State.

Last Saturday, Coppin State (3-1) destroyed the Lady Bulldogs 15-0 in five innings in the first game and then lost a heartbreaker in the second game 10-9 on Tiffany Harris' walk-off two-run homerun.

Last Sunday, the Lady Eagles swept S.C. State (8-7). In the first game, Coppin scored six runs in the sixth inning to run rule the Lady Bulldogs 11-2 in six innings. The Lady Eagles then rode the pitching of Tiffani Whaley and a save from MEAC Pre-season Pitcher of the Year Paige Arnold to hold off the Lady Bulldogs 5-3 in the second game.

Coppin State 15, S.C. State 0 (5 innings)

Coppin State jumped on SCSU in the first three innings of the game and never looked back. The Lady Eagles scored six runs in the first, four in the second, and five in the third. Paige Arnold performed like a pitcher of the year in the circle in going all five innings and giving up only four hits. Arnold struck out 11 while giving up one walk in the game.

Taylor Kairos, Heather Josker and Arnold drove in three runs each in the Coppin State victory.

S.C. State 10, Coppin State 9

The second game could've ended early for the Lady Eagles as S.C. State scored eight runs in the first three innings. Only two of those runs were earned as Coppin committed two errors in those three innings to put themselves behind the eight ball early.

However, Coppin started the comeback in the top of the fourth when Samantha Denlinger and Whaley got on base via two SCSU errors. Then a wild pitch and a passed ball scored Denlinger and landed Whaley at third. Then Kira Gleason whacked an RBI single, scoring Whaley. The deficit was cut to 8-2.

Emily DeJesus smacked a homerun in the fifth inning to make it 8-3. In the sixth, Whaley got on base due to an SCSU error. Then Arnold smashed a pitch over the left field fence for a two-run homerun to climb within 8-5.

Then in the top of the seventh, Coppin scored four runs to take a 9-8 lead. With the bases loaded and one out, SCSU pitcher Vianne Gomez intentionally walked Arnold, plating the sixth run. Gleason then singled to center, driving in two runs to tie the game at eight. Then Heather Josker, who pitched four innings of solid relief in the game lashed an RBI single to center to give the Lady Eagles the lead.

But in the bottom of the seventh, Hineline brought in Arnold for a save attempt. SCSU's Mika Johnson reached base on a fielding error from Whaley at first base. Then Arnold struck out Kiya Merritt. This set up Harris who homered over the left field fence to give SCSU their only victory of the series.

Tiffany said about the walk off home run, “My coaches told me to get in the box and just be relaxed. Don't try to knock the ball out or anything. Get in there and get comfortable. That first pitch came and I just wasn't going to get out.”

Hineline said about the game, “We fought back. We came back (from 8-0 to take the lead). I took the best pitcher in our league and put her in to win the game. We made an error and Harris hit a homerun. More power to her. Harris took a good swing and hit it. That's softball. Hopefully we can win some like that now and then.”

“We beat their best,” said SCSU head coach Tonja Braxton. “That feels even better. We would've taken the win against Whaley. But the fact that Paige is their best and we just beat their best, it's a good feeling.”

Coppin State 11, S.C. State 2 (6 innings)

Candice Van Horn's grand slam homerun to left in the top of sixth helped enable the Lady Eagles to pull away from SCSU in this game. “Candice hit a nice homerun. She has a lot of pop in her bat. She hits the ball pretty far in practice too,” said Hineline.

The difference in this game was that the Lady Eagles took advantage of their offensive situations more than the Lady Bulldogs.

Coach Braxton said, “(Coppin) put more hits together than we did at the right time. The defense was good for us. I thought Raven (Johnson) pitched well enough for us to win. We just didn't put the hits together when we needed them.”

Paige Arnold pitched the complete six innings and gave up the two runs, one of which were earned. She also struck out 10 and walked five for her second victory of the season.

Coppin State 5, S.C. State 3

In the second game, Tiffani Whaley rebounded from her rough start on Saturday and pitched a brillant 5.1 innings for her first win of the season. Whaley gave up all three runs on six hits, striking out four and walking two.

Tiffani said about her performance, “It was just really mental. It was all in my mind. You know I came into this game with a completely different attitude. And the result showed in my pitching.”

Hineline followed, “That's the hardest thing. When you see something like Saturday, you think well maybe I shouldn't pitch (Tiffani) the next day. But you got to have faith in them. You got to have confidence that Tiffani would go out there and throw like she's been throwing in practice and she did.”

“Tiffani and Paige are two different extremes. Tiffani is a lot slower and there's a lot more time to think. Almost too much time to think. In order to go from one extreme to the other, there's certain things that you have to do,” said Coach Braxton. “You have to sit back in the box. We were so out front, whereas when (Coppin) hits against Raven, who is slower than Vianne, but she is a different kind of a pitcher than Vianne also. (Coppin) did a better job staying back on Raven than we did staying back on Tiffani.”

The offense started for CSU in the top of the second. After Whaley was walked by Gomez, Paige Arnold blasted a pitch over the center field scoreboard for a two-run home run to put the Lady Eagles on top 2-0. Coppin also scored a run each in the fourth through sixth innings while SCSU scored a run in the fourth to make the score 5-1 in favor of Coppin State.

SCSU threatened in the bottom of the sixth. They scored two runs when Kelsey Grouchow doubled to left to cut the Coppin lead to 5-3. However, Hineline brought in Arnold one out into the inning. Arnold struck out four of the next five Lady Bulldogs to preserve the series clinching win for the Lady Eagles.