NORFOLK, Va. (May 14, 2022) –.It's only fitting that in a battle between the top two teams in the league, the 2022 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball Championship will need a second game in order to crown a champion.
No. 1 Morgan State and No. 2 Howard entered the contest both searching for their second championship title in their program's history. The defending champion Lady Bears were looking for back-to-back championships, while the Bison last won in 2007.
The Howard Bison would defeat the Morgan State Lady Bears, 5-0 in Game 1 on Saturday afternoon at the NSU Softball Field to force a second and decisive game, which is slated for 5 p.m.
For Morgan State (31-14), the loss ended a season-long 16-game winning streak, which was the second longest active streak in Division I this season.
Howard (30-22), which took 2-of-3 from Morgan during the regular season, has now won three of the five meetings this season.
After scoring a total of 40 runs on 32 hits and recording nine home runs in two games, Morgan State was shutout and held to three hits. Howard pitcher Analise De La Roca held the Lady Bears hitless through 3 2/3 innings. De La Roca, who improved to 15-7 on the season, finished the game surrendering three hits and a walk, while striking out a game-high four in seven innings.
It was a pitchers' duel the first two innings between Morgan State starter
Victoria Fletcher and De La Roca, and remained scoreless after three innings.
Howard, which scored all its runs in the fourth inning, had bases loaded with no outs when Jade Greene walked, scoring Payton Quinonez from third to give the Bison a 1-0 lead. Camille Navarro stepped in the box and singled up the middle to drive in two more runs to extend the lead to 3-0. Kalita Dennis singled to center field, scoring Greene and Alyssa Vasquez fouled out to right field, bringing in Navarro for the 5-0 lead.
That would prove to be all the runs the Bison would need.
Morgan State relief pitcher
Emily Raubuch would break up De La Roca's no-hit bid in the fourth, when she singled to center with two outs.
Mia Ewell, Raubuch and
Katariina Delph accounted for the Lady Bears' three hits. Fletcher pitched two innings, scattering five hits and no runs.
Melissa Paz (5-3) was charged with the loss.
Howard was led by Navarro's two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Quinonez amd Ayana Sallee each had two hits and scored a run. Dennis also had two hits.
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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.
