NORFOLK, Va. ? VMI scored its fifth win in six outings on Tuesday afternoon, scoring a 4-3 win over Norfolk State in non-conference baseball action at Marty L. Miller Field.
The Keydets (6-7) took advantage of 11 walks and three fielding errors by the Spartans (3-5) in the win. Keydet starter Adam Lopez (1-0) enjoyed a strong outing, allowing only two base runners through four innings while striking out seven, earning his first collegiate win. Matt Edwards came on to work a perfect ninth inning, recording a strikeout to notch his second save of the season.
VMI did all of its damage off of Spartan starter Horace Smith (0-1), who surrendered four runs, three earned, in 3.2 innings. The sophomore right-hander allowed only four hits, but issued nine walks while his defense made a pair of errors behind him.
Tanner Biagini was the only Keydet to notch multiple hits in the game, going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI. Senior A.J. Yoder's second-inning single gave him a 10-game hitting streak, the second-longest of his career.
Kyle Goodale and Graham Sullivan drove home VMI's first runs of the day with back-to-back singles in the second. Biagini then doubled home Sullivan in the fourth, and later in the inning scored on an error.
The Spartans rallied with a pair in the sixth off of reliever Andrew Deal. TiQuan Griffin scored NSU's first run on a Deal wild pitch, followed by an RBI double by Chris Joyce, plating John Lynch.
A pinch-hit double by Jermaine Berry to start the seventh inning put the Spartans in business off of reliever Josh McPherson. After a hit batsman in the next at bat, Travis Smink came on to retire the next three batters, one coming on a sacrifice fly by Griffin, to leave the tying run stranded at second base.
Smink then worked a perfect eighth before Edwards did the same in the ninth, as NSU never saw another base runner in the game.
No Spartan had more than one hit in the game, though four of the team's six hits went for two bases.
VMI returns to action on Wednesday afternoon, traveling to Charlottesville to take on #18 Virginia at 4 p.m.
