BALTIMORE, Md. (April 28, 2016)-For the Morgan State Lady Bears softball team it's come down to this: defeat your crosstown rival this weekend and you're heading to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament.

If this sounds familiar, it is. And at this point, to some degree, it only seems right. For the fifth straight season the Lady Bears find themselves yet again squaring off against rival Coppin State in the final weekend of the MEAC regular season with the winner securing the final postseason spot in the northern division.

In each of the four previous seasons, it has been the Lady Eagles of Coppin State winning the series and advancing to the league tournament, while ending Morgan State's season.

Morgan State (12-25, 7-7 MEAC), which hasn't reached the league tournament since 2011, will get another crack at getting past the rival Lady Eagles this weekend, when the Lady Bears host Coppin State in the regular season series finale. The two will meet in a doubleheader on Saturday, April 30 beginning at 1 p.m., before concluding with Sunday's Senior Day game on May 1 at noon. Morgan State will honor its seniors prior to the start of the game. All three contests will be played at Coppin State Field.

Coppin State (4-30, 4-11 MEAC) is still in contention for the final spot if it can sweep all three games this weekend. If that happens the Lady Eagles would hold the tiebreaker over Morgan State, which is key, being that Morgan State still needs to make-up its third game against Norfolk State, which is scheduled for Saturday, May 7 in Norfolk, Va. If that game is not made or if Morgan was to lose to Norfolk State, then Coppin State would advance to the tournament.

However, Morgan State can eliminate all of these possibilities, by simply winning just one game against Coppin State. The task at hand of needing to win only one of three games, may sound easy, but it will be anything but. Despite being considered as the home team this weekend, the fact still remains that it's Coppin State's Field, and Morgan State has not fared well there.

The Lady Bears are a combined 2-17 all-time when playing at Coppin State Field since it opened in 2010. With the Lady Bears having to move this year's home contests away from campus, while improvements are made at Louis T. Murray Field, Morgan State has already played three of its home games at Coppin State Field and lost all of them. The other five home contests were played at CCBC Dundalk Softball Field, where the Lady Bears went 2-3.

Morgan State enters the series coming off a series win over the University of Maryland Eastern Shore last weekend, after claiming two of three games. The Lady Bears swept the doubleheader, 2-1 in eight innings, and 7-0, before falling to the visiting Lady Hawks, 4-2 in the finale.

The Lady Bears have been paced by Audrianna Alvarez, who leads the team in batting average (.372), RBI (22), total bases (52) and walks (20). Alvarez, who has started all 37 games, is also tied for the team lead with Damali Young in both hits (35) and doubles (5) and is tied with Kimberly Fontaine in home runs (4). Alvarez ranks tied for fourth among MEAC leaders in walks and seventh in batting average, while Young is tied for seventh in runs scored with 31.

Amy Begg has recorded an 8-13 record on the mound and also leads the team with 10 complete games pitched. Begg has pitched a total of 126.2 innings, while throwing a team-leading 111 strikeouts. She currently ranks seventh in the MEAC in both wins and innings pitched, ninth in the MEAC in ERA (4.09) and is third in total strikeouts, tied for second in games started (23) and tied for sixth in complete games.

As a team Morgan State has recorded a season-best 92 stolen bases, shattering the previous school record of 65 set during the 1999 season. Young, who ranks second in the MEAC in stolen bases, leads the team with 27 out of 30 attempts, while Giselle Alvarez has 14 stolen bases in 15 attempts, which ranks eighth in the MEAC. Kimber Salvas is 12-of-16 in stolen bases, while Audrianna Alvarez is a perfect 12-for-12.

The Lady Eagles dropped all three of their games last weekend at home against Hampton and have lost 14 of their last 16 games.

Coppin State has been led by Danielle Smith, who leads the Lady Eagles and the MEAC in batting average at .495, which also ranks first in NCAA Division I. Smith is fifth in the MEAC in hits (51), second in doubles (11), third in triples (4), seventh in stolen bases (16), third in total bases (79), first in slugging percentage (.767) and first in on base percentage (.558). Smith has also paced the Lady Eagles in RBI (21), walks (10) and runs scored (26).