College notes: Delaware State tops Delaware in baseball; Wilm. makes softball Series again

DOVER — The Delaware State baseball team gave J.P. Blandin a nice going-away present on Tuesday.

In Blandin’s last home game as the Hornets’ coach, DSU dumped Route One rival Delaware, 15-5, at Bob Reed Field.

It was DelState’s seventh victory in the all-time series that the Blue Hens lead 7-26. The 15 runs were also the Hornets’ second-highest total against Delaware.

DSU opened up a 7-1 lead after two innings and put the contest out of reach with seven runs in the fifth.

Senior Krew Bouldin put up six RBI for the Hornets, who out-hit the Hens, 10-5.

Delaware State (18-12 NEC, 20-24 overall) has now won four games in a row and sits in fifth place in the league standings. The top six teams make the NEC tournament.

The Hornets end the regular season with a three-game series at Central Connecticut State (16-13 NEC, 17-22 overall) starting this afternoon.

Blandin is retiring after the season. The Middletown native has been DSU’s head coach since 2001.

Hornets get new soccer coach

Natasha Ademakinwa has been named Delaware State’s new head coach in women’s soccer.

Ademakinwa had been the men’s and women’s head coach at Shawnee State University, which is located in Portsmouth, Ohio. The Bears have an NAIA Division I athletic program.

A native of London, Ademakinwa was the Shawnee head women’s soccer coach for six seasons and head men’s coach for two years.

Along with her college coaching experience, Ademakinwa has 22 years of coaching experience at various levels and has a UEFA National ‘B’ coaching license.

The Hornets went 0-14-1 in the fall, scoring only two goals.

College softball

Wilmington 12, Adelphi 0: The Wildcats scored six runs in the first inning and never looked back in clinching the East Super Regional on Wednesday.

Wilmington won the series 2-0 to advance to the NCAA Division II national tournament for the second year in a row.

The Wildcats had 14 hits in the five-inning contest led by Gabriella Saucedo who went 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Spiders moving on

Like Delaware, Richmond’s football program is leaving the Coastal Athletic Association after next season.

Rather than moving up to the FBS level like the Blue Hens, who are joining Conference USA, the Spiders will play in the Patriot League, which is more known for its academic prowess.

Richmond announced on Tuesday that will be an associate member of the Patriot League starting in 2025. The Spiders won the NCAA FCS Division I national title in 2008 and have reached at least the second round of the playoffs nine times since 2005.

The Blue Hens will play at Richmond on Oct. 19 this season. Delaware is 20-14 all-time vs. the Spiders but started 10-2 in the series.

Richmond has won six of the last eight meetings, including a crushing, last-second 21-13 win in 2022.

DSU opening athletics museum

Delaware State has announced it will be opening an athletics museum on campus.

The facility will be known as the Loockerman Hall Athletics Museum. The school is looking for donations of memorabilia to be displayed.

According to a flier, the museum is “dedicated towards honoring the amazing legacy of DSU Athletics.”

Extra points

• Smyrna’s Cameron Edge completed 11-of-25 passes for 151 yards in Maryland’s spring football game.
• Dover’s Dom Velazquez is 2-0 with a 4.11 ERA in seven appearances for the Delaware baseball squad since returning from off-season elbow surgery.
• Former DelState football star John Taylor , who spent 10 seasons with the 49ers in the NFL, was inducted into the Bay Area Hall of Fame last week. “It’s unreal,” Taylor was quoted. “I never thought I’d make it here. Look at the people that are already in... I’m going to be on the wall with all the rest of those guys.”
• Gerald Drumgoole, Jr., who spent one season with the Delaware men’s basketball team, is transferring to George Washington. It will be the fourth school for Drumgoole, who averaged 13.9 points last winter.
• Zion Bethea, a 6-foot-4 guard who also spent one season with Delaware, is going to try the West Coast after announcing that he’s transferring to Pepperdine. He played in only three games with the Blue Hens due to injuries.
• The Blue Hen football team has added linebacker Marc Viechec, a 5-foot-11, 225-pounder who played in only two games at Marshall last fall. Before that, though, he posted 189 tackles, with 20.5 for loss, in three seasons at NCAA FCS program Southeastern (Fla.)..
• After going 38-12 during the regular season, the Delaware softball team went 1-2 in the CAA tournament.
• Former UD basketball assistant coach Phil Martelli, Jr. , now the head coach at Bryant, is reportedly hiring former Blue Hen standout Ryan Daly as an assistant. Daly had been an assistant at Albany.
• One of the things that the CFL’s Winninpeg Blue Bombers liked about DSU running back Michael Chris-Ike is that he stuck with the Hornets despite not getting many carries last fall. The Bombers recently signed the No. 14 draft pick.
• “You find out he knows he might not be as involved, and he sticks it out and he finds other ways to help his team,” coach Mike O’Shea was quoted in the Winnipeg Sun. “Those things carry a lot of weight. In a day and age in the NCAA where everybody just packs up and leaves … you like that in kids these days.”