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BALTIMORE, Md. (April 27, 2022)--The Morgan State softball team will look to claim the 2022 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) regular season crown this weekend and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming league tournament when it entertains the Eagles of North Carolina Central (NCCU) at Lois T. Murray Field to close out the MEAC regular season.
This will be the first meeting between the two programs since last season's MEAC championship game. The three-game series gets underway on Saturday, April 30 with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. and will conclude on Sunday, May 1 with a single-game at 12 p.m.
Sunday's contest will be a special day, as it will mark Senior Day. Morgan State will honor its four seniors (
Aliya Ewell,
Kyley Fijalkowski,
Tayven Rousseau and
Cayla Sweazie) prior to the game. Morgan State will also unveil its 2021 MEAC Championship banner.
"When we played Central in the championship last year, they were a pretty good team. We beat them and I thought we stacked up pretty well against them," said Morgan State head coach
Larry Hineline. "They score some runs and they're not pushovers. So, it will be a competitive weekend."
The Lady Bears (26-13, 15-3 MEAC) head into the final weekend of the conference schedule in a first-place tie with Norfolk State (30-17, 15-3 MEAC) in the league standings. Morgan State holds the tiebreaker over Norfolk State. The Spartans, who first visit North Carolina State on Wednesday, close out their MEAC schedule this weekend on the road at Maryland Eastern Shore.
Morgan State, which is riding a season-long 11-game winning streak, traveled to Orangeburg S.C last weekend and swept their series against South Carolina State.
The Lady Bears, who lead the league in team ERA at 1.56, carry the top three rankings in the MEAC for individual ERA.
Melissa Paz, who ranks fourth in the nation, has an ERA of 0.51 to lead the MEAC.
Victoria Fletcher ranks second at 1.92, while
Anaya Hunte (2.19) is third. Hunte leads the league in strikeouts with 114 and is second in wins with 13.
Offensively, Mia and
Aliya Ewell lead the lead in triples with seven and
Tayven Rousseau is tied for second in doubles with 13.
Asia Thomas ranks second in walks with 29.
Mia Ewell is third in stolen bases with 22, while Thomas ranks fifth with 17.
The Eagles (11-31, 8-10 MEAC) are coming off a 9-1 non-conference loss at East Carolina on Tuesday. Senior Madison Mifsud hit her fourth home run of the season to account for NCCU's lone run of the game.
As a team, NCCU ranks second in total homers with 31. Hailey Batista and Jaylah Barr are tied for second in the MEAC in home runs with seven apiece.
"I expect us to do well, especially in the pitching department. But I respect them," said Hineline. "They've got some hitters, they're capable of scoring runs and they're capable of staying in a ball game. We just can't make a lot of mistakes. If we do that and our pitching comes to pitch and we don't make defensive mistakes, we should do pretty well against them."
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ABOUT MORGAN
Morgan State University, founded in 1867, is a Carnegie-classified
high research (R2) institution offering nearly 140 academic programs leading to degrees from the baccalaureate to the doctorate. As Maryland's
Preeminent Public Urban Research University, and the only university to have its entire campus
designated as a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible. For more information about Morgan State University, visit
www.morgan.edu.
