CARY  - It didn't take long for Villanova to find out what most opponents unfamiliar with the North Carolina A&T baseball team will discover. The Aggies can hit. N.C. A&T scored 12 unanswered to defeat the Wildcats 12-6 Tuesday afternoon at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

As a team, the Aggies are hitting .358 on the young season. Sophomore Carvell Copeland recorded four hits and scored a run. Freshman Luke Tendler went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.  

Villanova, who has been in the south for two weeks playing the likes of Norfolk State, N.C. Central and Duke, jumped out to a 6-0 lead thanks to three walks, two errors and a batter who was hit by the pitch.

Over the next eight innings, the Aggies pitching got better and their hitters gave all six Villanova pitchers fits.

After Andre McKoy scored on a throwing error, Dairio Little's sacrifice fly to right field scored Xavier Macklin from third to tie the game at 6 in the fifth inning. The Aggies took their first lead of the game in the seventh as Kelvin Freeman led the inning with a double to right center field. Little and Mark Nales would later walk to load the bases.

The Wildcats turned to relief pitcher Kevin MacLachlan to slow the Aggies down. Head coach Keith Shumate countered with left-handed pinch-hitter Craig Erskine. Erskine lined the right-hander's 1-2 pitch into left field for a two-run single that scored Freeman and Little for an 8-6 Aggies lead.

Reliever Garrett Braun took care of the rest for the Aggies (5-4). Braun replaced starter Dustin Myers in the second inning, and pitched like an ace all afternoon. He went eight scoreless innings and struck out nine to improve to 1-1 on the season.

The Aggies will put their four-game winning streak on the line Wednesday afternoon when they host Appalachian State from War Memorial Stadium at 3.