SPARTANBURG, S.C.-  North Carolina A&T saw its early lead evaporate as USC Upstate's offense got the best of A&T's bullpen in an 11-6 win over the Aggies at Cleveland S. Harley Baseball Park.

The Spartans (16-3), ranked No. 25 by CollegeBaseballDaily.com in the site's Mid-Major poll for the last two weeks, collected five runs in the fifth off reliever Andrew Cook to capture their first lead of the game.  They extended that lead with another pair of runs in the sixth. It broke open a game the Aggies once led 3-0.

"That was a good team we faced," said Sanchez.  "These midweek games we have, there's no slack.  We've got to come out and play.  We've got to be on our game every time."

The Aggies (6-13) started off hot, scoring a pair of runs on three consecutive hits in the first inning.  Shortstop Michael Radford singled to left-center field to begin the game.  He scored on an RBI double by left fielder Andre McKoy.  McKoy came around to score as second baseman Marquis Riley singled over the head of Spartans second baseman Austin Liput.  Riley extended his hitting streak to eight games with that hit, and finished the game 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. 

Third baseman Luke Tendler kept the action going with a leadoff double to left in the second inning.   He scored on a triple by freshman Brandon Wilkerson to make it a 3-0 contest.

But the Spartans pulled within one on a two-RBI single over the head of Tendler at third by shortstop Brody Greer.

The Aggies kept on pressuring Spartans starter Ben Augenstein. They padded their lead 4-2 in the third inning as Riley scored on a throwing error after reaching on a single and moving into scoring position on an Augenstein wild pitch.

After the Spartans tied the game at 4 in the third inning, the Aggies took back the lead in the top of the fifth. With runners on second and third and no out, Dairio Little hit the ball up the middle.  Shortstop Greer made a wild throw, so Little was safe at first and McKoy scored on the play to make it 5-4.  Little stole second while Freeman was batting, and Greer threw the ball back to catcher Patterson to put out Riley at home.  Freeman was then called on batter's interference as Patterson tried to throw out Little at third.  Cox struck out Jordan to get out of the inning.

 "We had a couple of costly mental errors on the basepaths that kind of gave them the momentum back and took ourselves out of an inning there.  We had their pitcher on the ropes a little bit, and we were swinging the bats well, and we let him off the hook," Sanchez said.

The back-and-forth battle waged again as the Spartans scored two runs on a triple off of Cook by Liput to pull ahead 6-5 in the bottom of the fifth.  Greer notched a hit over the head of Tendler to score Greer and give the Spartans a two-run lead.   An RBI single by designated hitter Luke Weber made it an 8-5 game.  USC-Upstate added another run to extend their lead to four runs on an RBI single by Richardson.  Sanchez then called on freshman right-hand pitcher Shane Carter to replace Cook with the bases loaded and two out.  Carter got Patterson to pop out to get out of the frame.