DOVER, Del. – The North Carolina Central University baseball program was stymied early in its contest with Delaware State, and the Hornets took advantage to come away with an 8-3 series-opening win on Friday, April 16 at Soldier Field.
 
NCCU (12-12) was held without a hit for the first three frames by Cole Bates (Shawboro, N.C.), and DSU (10-12) used that opportunity to take a 4-0 lead.  Mason Brewer increased the Hornets' advantage to 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth by way of a solo home run, but the Eagles' bats woke up shortly thereafter.
 
NCCU got on the board with two runs in the top of the sixth on a two-RBI double by Kokko Figueiredo (Fortuna, Calif.), and then trimmed the lead down to two on a run-scoring single by Tristan Shea (Charlotte, N.C.).
 
DSU stopped the Eagles' charge there, as it scored three runs to push the lead back to four with help from RBI singles by Jared Gillis (Middletown, Del.) and Krew Bouldin (Middletown, Del.) to send the game to its final score of 8-3.
 
Figueiredo led NCCU with two hits and two RBI, and Nick Fajardo (Durham, N.C.) also collected a pair of hits for the Eagles.
 
Trey Paige (Reading, Pa.) lifted a home run as one of his two hits for DSU, and drove in three RBI, and Miguel Rivera (Dover, Del.) finished with two hits for the Hornets as well.
 
The series between NCCU and DSU will continue on Saturday, April 17 at noon with a doubleheader at Soldier Field in Dover, Delaware.