BALTIMORE, Md. (April 24, 2016)-The Morgan State softball team missed out on a golden opportunity on Sunday afternoon to clinch a spot in the upcoming Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) softball championship tournament, scheduled for May 12-14 in Ormond Beach, Fla.

After sweeping the doubleheader on Saturday, the Lady Bears would drop the finale of their three-game series against the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), by a score of 4-2 at Coppin State Field.

With the loss, the Lady Bears (12-25, 7-7 MEAC Northern Division) fell to 2-17 all-time when playing at Coppin State Field since it was built in 2010. Morgan State still needs just one more league victory in order to secure a postseason spot and end a five-year drought of reaching the MEAC Tournament.

It only seems fitting that a tournament berth comes down to next weekend's regular season finale and standing in the way of Morgan State advancing, is crosstown rival Coppin State. The Lady Eagles, who have prevented Morgan State from reaching the postseason in each of the past four seasons, will once again have the opportunity to knock the Lady Bears out, while securing their own spot.

The two teams will square off with a doubleheader on Saturday, April 30 beginning at 1 p.m., followed by a single game on Sunday, May 1 at noon, as Morgan State will celebrate Senior Day. All three games will be played at Coppin State Field with the Lady Bears serving as the home team.

Morgan State will need to win just one of the games to secure what will be the fourth and final postseason spot, while Coppin State must win all three games in order to advance and then hope for a Morgan loss at Norfolk State in a make-up game scheduled for May 7.

The Lady Bears had a chance to put all of this to rest on Sunday and eliminate Coppin State, if they were able to complete the weekend sweep of UMES. Prior to its game with UMES, Morgan State received some help earlier in the day from Hampton, when it witnessed the visiting Lady Pirates defeat Coppin State, 14-2 in a game played at Coppin State Field.

Morgan State junior Audrianna Alvarez got the Lady Bears on the board first with a solo shot down the left field line to give Morgan a 1-0 lead.

UMES (11-26, 4-11 MEAC) evened the score at 1-1 in the top of the third inning, when a throwing error allowed Allison Anderson to score. The Lady Hawks then added two more runs in the top of the fourth on Vanessa Gomez's two-run double to give the guests a 3-1 advantage.

Morgan State pulled within 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Korynna Lara singled in Alvarez.

But the visiting Lady Hawks got the run back in the very next inning on a RBI triple hit by Anderson to score Gomez give UMES a 4-2 lead.

UMES pitcher Adrienne Guerra (9-14) would throw a game-high 10 strikeouts and sealed the deal with a strikeout to end the game. Guerra, would pitch a complete game, surrendering two runs on six hits and no walks in seven innings of work.

Anderson led UMES with two hits on two at bats with a run scored, walk and RBI. Gomez went 2-for-4 at the plate with 2RBI.

The Lady Bears were led by Kimber Salvas, who went 2-for-3 at the plate and Lara, who also went 2-for-3 with a RBI. Alvarez finished 1-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored and a RBI. Amy Begg was charged with the loss and fell to 8-13 on the season. Begg finished with three strikeouts in four innings of work. Allison Hartman came in relief for Begg, and added two strikeouts.