La Salle continued its strong start to the season Saturday afternoon, clinching its third consecutive weekend series with a 9–6 victory over Coppin State.
The Explorers (7–2) jumped out early and relied on a dominant bullpen effort to hold off a late push, securing the series with another balanced performance on both sides of the ball.
La Salle struck immediately. Rueben Livingston set the tone in the top of the first with a two-run double, then later scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Justin Szestowicki to give the Explorers a 3–0 lead. They added two more in the second when Daniel Perez scored on a wild pitch and Chase Swain delivered an RBI ground-rule double to plate Ryan Perez, stretching the advantage to 5–0.
Coppin State answered with three runs in the bottom of the second, but La Salle regained control in the fourth. Alec Welshans launched his team-leading fifth home run of the season — a two-run shot — to push the margin to 7–3. Szestowicki added his second RBI of the afternoon in the fifth with a single that scored Livingston, extending the lead to 8–3.
Livingston remained locked in at the plate, finishing with two doubles and two RBIs. He is now OPSing 1.550 during a five-game hitting streak dating back to last weekend.
Coppin State trimmed the deficit to 8–6 with three runs in the seventh, but Josh Beck entered and halted the rally, stranding the tying runs in scoring position. La Salle added an insurance run in the eighth on Swain’s bases-loaded single to make it 9–6.
From there, the bullpen sealed it.
Hudson Narke (1-1) earned the win with three scoreless innings, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the second by inducing an inning-ending double play. Connor Collora followed with two scoreless frames, and Beck closed the door with three shutout innings, striking out three and facing the minimum to earn his first save of the season.
La Salle will go for the sweep Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
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