NORFOLK, Va. – The North Carolina Central University baseball program and Norfolk State played a scoreless game all the way to the bottom of the eighth inning, but the Spartans were able to capitalize on a late error to score the lone run of the contest and advance to the championship game by a final score of 1-0 on Friday, May 21 at Marty Miller Field.

Austin Vernon (Raleigh, N.C.) threw nine strikeouts in 7.2 innings of work, and the only run he allowed was unearned on a two-out RBI single by Danny Hosley (Vienna, Va.) in the bottom of the eighth.  Both NCCU (26-19) and NSU (24-26) had opportunities to score in the earlier innings, but great pitching by Vernon and James Deloatch (Norfolk, Va.) kept both teams off the board.

Deloatch was able to go the distance for NSU and threw a complete game shutout with five strikeouts to send NSU into the championship game.

NCCU will face the winner between Delaware State and Florida A&M in an elimination game later in the day at 7:00 p.m. for another chance to advance to the championship.