GREENSBORO-Giving back to the Greensboro community is important to first-year North Carolina A&T head baseball Joel Sanchez.  He and his team volunteered by umpiring at a charity softball and baseball tournament on Nov. 12. 

"It's important for us to get out in the community," Sanchez said. "It gives the guys a little bit of a different perspective, to get out there and help."

The tournament was held at the Pleasant Garden Community Center's sports complex in benefit of 9-year-old who was hospitalized and induced into a coma for severe seizures.  The tournament featured 16-under softball, 12-under softball, 10-under baseball and adult co-ed softball teams. Five fields were often active at the same time during the tournament, which ran from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

To help staff so many fields, the Aggies helped umpire the games.  There were two or three A&T players umpiring each field.  Most players served as field umpires, but a few N.C. A&T catchers had the chance to call balls and strikes, instead of receiving them, serving as home plate umpires for a few of the softball games.

"It was a different experience for them," Sanchez said, noting that it was new perspective for his players to be on the other side of umpiring judgment.   But the event went as smoothly as a 4-6-3 double play for all involved.

"The guys had fun, and we had a lot of good praise from parents, from [Craven's] family, and from the people in charge of the event," Sanchez said. 

The Aggie baseball players also earned community service hours by participating, which will go toward their graduation credit.  The baseball team will be back out in the community in December, taking part in the Triad Health Project 20^th Annual Winter Walk for AIDs on Dec. 4. 

The event, a three-mile community walk that raises funds and awareness to benefit Triad Health Project's client services and prevention education programs, will be starting at the home of the Aggies baseball team, War Memorial Stadium. 

Sanchez said he hopes that the team's continued involvement in the community will help generate new fans for his squad.

"Hopefully people will start to recognize that A&T has a baseball team," he said.