ORMOND BEACH, Fla. — No. 3 south-seeded North Carolina Central University was held to three hits as No. 2 north-seeded Howard University claimed the 2019 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball Championship quarterfinals opener for both teams, 6-0, on Wednesday afternoon at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.
 
Senior Mackenzie Steele tossed the complete-game shutout and sophomore designated player Breanna Robinson provided the big bat for the victorious Bison.
 
Howard improved to 17-27 on the season and will play defending champion and the Southern Division regular season champions Betune-Cookman University in the semifinals of the winner's bracket at 3 p.m. Thursday.
 
NC Central slipped to 21-25 and will be forced to play an elimination game against No. 4 north-seeded Coppin State University on Thursday at Noon. The winner of that game will have to play a second elimination game on Thursday at 5 p.m. against the loser of the other semifinal between No. 2 south-seeded Florida A&M University and No. 1 north-seeded Norfolk State University.
 
The Lady Eagles had a runner in scoring position with just one out in each of the first two innings, but NCCU was unable to get the clutch hit to take an early edge. Sophomore Nadia Blevins singled in the first and stole second, but was stranded after Steele got a pop-up and a fly-out. Junior Tamiera Sanchez led off the second with a base hit that she legged out into a double after the diving left fielder could not come up with the shallow catch. After being sac bunted to third, Steele got two of her three strikeouts to end the second straight maroon and gray threat.
 
Robinson put the designated hosts on the board in the bottom of the second. She ripped a deep double to left and scoring on an ensuing single off the bat of freshman Jackie Jones. Robinson then hit a two-run home run in the fourth to extend the Bison advantage to 3-0. Robinson, who also walked in the fifth for a perfect performance from the plate, hit her third homer of the season to left. A couple NCCU errors led to three unearned runs in the fifth to double-up Howard's final score to 6-nil.
 
Steele only allowed one other NCCU hit over the final five innings, which was a single by senior Aleyah Evans down the left field line, to improve to 12-16.
 
Blevins, who reached base for a second time on Howard's only error in the sixth, successfully swiped second for a second time to increase her team-high total to 29 thefts.
 
Sophomore Kiara Hurley (16-14) took the loss, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits over four-plus innings of work with three strikeouts.