NORFOLK, Va. – Sophomore first baseman
Hailey Batista and senior outfielder
Diamond Porter accounted for the only two North Carolina Central University hits in a 28-0 winner's bracket loss in the 2022 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Softball Championship to regular season champion Morgan State University on Wednesday afternoon.
The fifth-seeded Eagles were unable to pull off a second upset on the opening day of the postseason tournament after defeating fourth-seeded University of Maryland Eastern Shore in the opening round. NCCU (12-35) will next play an elimination game against sixth-seeded Coppin State University on Thursday at noon.
Top-seeded Morgan State (30-13) – the defending MEAC Champions – will next play the winner of the second-seeded Howard University versus third-seeded Norfolk State University game on Thursday at 6 p.m.
The Bears scored its 28 runs on just 19 hits, but six of those were hits were home runs. Junior Victoria Fletcher paced the victors with four hits and four RBI. Eight different MSU batters had multiple RBI performances with junior Madison Nunez driving in a game-high five runs.
Sophomore Anaya Hunte, who was named the MEAC Pitcher of the Year on Tuesday, tossed the first three innings in the combined two-hit shutout. Hunt improved to 19-3 on the season, recording six of her nine outs with strikeouts.
