After his North Carolina A&T baseball team swept a doubleheader from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) on Saturday at War Memorial Stadium, 8-5 and 10-5, head coach Ben Hall said his team has more production and more consistency offensively than they showed.
That’s good news, considering the Aggies recorded 28 hits over two games, including five extra base hits. In Game 1, every A&T starter recorded at least one hit. Junior college transfer Luis Espinal led the way by going 3-for-5 with a run scored and a three-run RBI double. Junior Tre Williams added a 2-for-5 Game 1 that included his first home run as an Aggie, a two-run deep center field bast in the fourth inning.
Anthony Hennings had a monster day. He led the Aggies in Game 2, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored. Hennings combined to post a 6-for-9 day with two runs scored and two RBI.
“You want to build confidence. You want guys to know the work they put in is the right work and that they see the fruits of their labor,” said Hall about the Aggies offensive outburst. “We’re grinding in the cage all the time, and if you go out and don’t have success, sometimes it starts leaning on you, getting heavy on you.
We got some good hitters here. We can definitely swing the bat. There are at-bats in there that the group would tell they want back. It would be nice to see them make some adjustments and string together a few more hits tomorrow.”
UMES scored three in the visitor’s half of the second to take a 3-1 lead over A&T, but the Aggies quickly responded in their second. Shemar Dalton and Devon Rodriguez led off. TJ Ash tried to sacrifice them into scoring position, but he laid down such a perfect bunt he reached to load the bases for Espinal’s three-run RBI double.
Williams’ two-run homer gave the Aggies a 6-3 lead before the Hawks got a run back in the fifth on an RBI single from Riley Horner. Sophomore Canyon Brown, a member of the Big South Conference’s all-freshman team last season, gave Aggies right-handed relief pitcher Connor Blantz more than he needed to lock down the win for A&T.
Brown towered a homer to left for an 8-4 Aggies lead in the fifth. It marked his eighth career homer. After starter Luke Brown went 4 2/3 innings, giving up only two earned runs and striking out four, Blantz pitched the final 4 1/3 for the win. He gave up only one run in that span, and that run scored on a double play. Cort Maynard added a two-hit outing for the Aggies in Game 1, and Horner led the Hawks with a 3-for-4 Game 1.
A&T started even faster in Game 2. Dalton started the second-inning rally with an RBI single to center to score Maynard, who reached on a fielder’s choice. Rodriguez then hit into a fielder’s choice, but it allowed Chet Sikes, who reached on a single and went 2-for-3 with two runs scored in Game 2, to score for a 2-0 lead.
After Rodriguez stole second, Ash drove him home with an RBI single before Hennings sent Ash home on an RBI double for a 4-0 A&T lead. Williams capped the rally with an RBI triple. After UMES scored two in the third, the Aggies added to their lead with another triple as Ash drove in Rodriguez and Sikes to give the Aggies a 7-2 lead in the sixth. Hennings followed with an RBI single.
An RBI double by UMES’s Dillon Oxyer in the seventh cut A&T’s lead to 8-3, but the Aggies added two in the seventh for a quick response, taking a 10-3 lead into the ninth. But A&T ran into some trouble in the UMES ninth as Derrick Mayes II hit a two-run homer, and the Hawks loaded the bases with one out. But RHP Coley Kilpatrick entered the game and struck out the last two batters he faced to secure the win.
“We saw a little adversity today,” said Hall. “We talked about it going into this spring. What will happen after we make a mistake or after the other team does something good? How do we respond? We responded to adversity today. They scored some runs, but we were able to bounce back. We made some mistakes on the mound, but we got out of them, and we really did some good things offensively throughout both games.”
Daniel Carter (1-0) got the win in Game 2, and Nick Gatton (0-1) got the loss.