BALTIMORE, Md. (April 27, 2015)-The Morgan State softball team completed a three-game series sweep of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday afternoon by scoring five runs in the seventh inning to defeat the host Lady Hawks, 5-2 at Hawks Field. Morgan State earned its first series victory of the season, when it took both games of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) doubleheader on Saturday afternoon, winning the opener by a score of 8-5 and the second game, 4-3.
 
The win on Sunday marked the Lady Bears' first series sweep this season and with Delaware State sweeping its weekend series against Howard, the Lady Bears are still alive to reach the MEAC Tournament. Morgan State, which sits in the fifth spot, behind fourth-place Howard (14-27, 8-10 MEAC), can advance to the tournament if they win all three games at Coppin State this weekend.
 
If Coppin State wins the series, the Lady Bears will be eliminated. If Morgan State wins two games, they will be tied with Howard at eight MEAC wins and will need to reschedule and win the third-game of their series against Hampton, which was postponed (April 10). Otherwise, Howard would hold the tie-breaker over Morgan State and would advance by way of winning two of the three games against the Lady Bears.
 
The host Lady Hawks (7-29, 4-11 MEAC), who were wrapping up their home finale of the season with Senior Day on Sunday, took a 2-0 lead after five innings. Vanessa Gomez doubled in a run in the fourth inning, and Morgan King's RBI single up the middle in the fifth inning gave the host the 2-0 advantage.
 
The score would remain that way until the top of the seventh inning when the Morgan State bats came to life. The Lady Bears would score five runs on six hits in the inning to come-from-behind to defeat UMES.
 
The Lady Bears (7-28, 6-8 MEAC) quickly loaded the bases and Kimberly Fontaine singled to left field to score Zina Constancia, who led off the inning with a single to center. After Kimber Salvas scored the tying run on a throwing error, Audrianna Alvarez singled through the right side to score Nicole Holguin, to give the guests a 3-2 lead. Kate Vosper stepped to the plate and hit a RBI single to left field to provide the fourth run of the inning for the Lady Bears with no outs. Nicole Vandenberg scored the fifth and final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly hit by Claudette Tanabe-Smith.
 
UMES appeared as if it wouldn't go away quietly, as Tesharra Hill led off the bottom of the seventh with a double to left center. Two batters later Ciara Schnyder singled to third base, but Hill wasn't able to advance from second. King then lined into an unassisted double play and Schnyder was out on the play to end the game.
 
Morgan State's Amy Begg picked up the win for the Lady Bears and improved to 7-15 on the season. Begg surrendered two runs on 13 hits, three walks and had two strikeouts. Alvarez led the Lady Bears with two hits on three at bats with a walk and RBI. Constancia went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
 
The Lady Hawks were led by Alexis Hudson, who tallied three hits on four at bats. Schnyder finished 2-for-3 with a walk and Gomez was 2-for-4 with a RBI.   
 
A Look Ahead To Coppin State
Coppin State has prevented Morgan State from reaching the league tournament the past three seasons in the regular season finale and holds a 12-5 lead over Morgan State dating back to the 2010 season.
 
The Lady Bears' lone series win during that stretch came in 2011, when Morgan won 3 of the 5 games played, including a 2-1 mark in league play. Coppin State, however, would eliminate the Lady Bears from the MEAC Tournament with a 6-0 victory on March 12, 2011.
 
The last time Morgan State swept Coppin State was during the 2009 season at Lois T. Murray Field.
 
Last season Morgan State swept the UMES series and then dropped the doubleheader to Coppin State, which eliminated the Lady Bears from reaching the MEAC Tournament. Morgan State would win the finale to avoid being swept, by its rival.