BALTIMORE - Having an extra arm going into a conference tournament is never a bad thing. The North Carolina A&T baseball team may have such an arm going into the MEAC Tournament May 20-23.
Sophomore Nick Oelker put together another solid start to lead the Aggies to a 7-4 win over Coppin State Sunday night at Joe Cannon Stadium. Oelker (3-5), who normally starts the Aggies midweek games, picked up the win by giving up just one earned run over eight innings. He also struck out five and walked just one Eagle.
Oelker started the season 1-4 with a 9.87 ERA. But over his last four starts, he is 2-1 with a 2.48 ERA. His one loss was a 2-1 heartbreaking defeat to Duke. Oelker's late-season surge is an added bonus for the Aggies.
Esterlin Paulino and Brent Moore already have the top two ERA's in the conference. Nick Rogers is 9-3 on the season, and leads the MEAC in strikeouts. Add to that an offense that bats .356 against conference foes and the Aggies look prepared to make a run.
Freshman Kelvin Freeman, coming off of a nine-RBI performance, continued his hitting ways on Sunday. He extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a 2-for-4 performance. He also scored a run and had three RBIs. Senior James Howard was 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Freeman's two-run RBI in the third gave the Aggies a 4-1 lead. Two innings later, the Aggies looked headed toward another blowout in conference play. The Aggies opened the fifth with back-to-back singles from Dario Little and Marquis Riley. Xavier Macklin loaded the bases with a walk.
Freshman Alex Grubb hit into a double play, but Little still scored to give the Aggies a four-run lead. Riley advanced to third on the double play and later scored on a wild pitch for a 6-1 advantage.
The Eagles finally got to Oelker in the seventh inning. Chris Kashangaki's single up the middle scored Mark Reynoso who reached on an error. Kashangaki later scored on an error, and Cipriano Garza would move the Eagles to within two on a Craig Richmond sacrifice fly.
Macklin killed the Eagles momentum with his 12th home run of the season in the eighth inning. Coppin State did put the tying run on the plate in the ninth inning. But Richmond hit into a force play to help the Aggies improve to 25-23 overall and 15-3 in the MEAC. The 15 conference wins is a school record. Garrett Braun picked up his third save of the season.
The Aggies return home to host Duke Monday night at 7. They have a weekend series against Savannah State before heading to Daytona Beach, Fla., for the tournament.
