DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.-The Bethune-Cookman Wildcats  struck early in both halves of a doubleheader against the North Carolina A&T Aggies, and despite battling back, the Aggies lost to the Wildcats 7-5 and 6-2 in baseball action at Jackie Robinson Ballpark on Saturday afternoon.

"It was another hard fought two games, and we came out on the losing side of both," said A&T head coach Joel Sanchez.  "They're a good team, and it's like any other team-we can't make any mistakes.  We've got to play solid defense, have solid pitching and offensively get the key hits... We've got to do a better job as far as throwing strikes and not getting up in pitch counts." 

The rain became a factor in Game 2, hitting hard and soaking the mound in two different innings when the Aggies were in the field, making it difficult to play optimal defense.  

"Our guys came out and they had the right attitude to win, but we just can't catch any breaks," Sanchez said. 

Aggie pitchers combined to give up 22 hits and nine walks on the day.  The Aggies totaled 17 hits across the two games, but left a total of 17 players, including 10 in Game 2.

"Those were two good arms we saw from them.  We had a good offensive approach.  Our pitching struggled a little bit in finding the strike zone," Sanchez said.

Junior Kelvin Freeman had a great day at the plate, finishing 6-for-8 with a pair of doubles and two RBI.  Senior Marquis Riley extended his hitting streak to nine games in Game 1, by finishing 1-for-5, tying Kelvin Freeman for the longest hitting streak by an A&T player this season.  Freeman hit in nine consecutive games from Feb. 18-March 3.   But Riley also struck out three times on the day-more than doubling his strikeout total for the season.

In Game 1, the Aggies (6-14, 1-4) jumped out to the early lead as an RBI single up the middle by senior second baseman Riley brought home shortstop Michael Radford, who reached on a leadoff walk, to take a 1-0 lead. 

But the Wildcats (14-10, 4-2) answered right back in the bottom of the first, and scored a trio of runs to pull ahead 4-1.  The Wildcats extended their lead with an RBI single in the second frame to make it a 5-1 contest.   An RBI double by rightfielder David Lee extended the B-CU lead to five runs in the second inning.

"[Starter Esterlin Paulino]  was up in the zone a little bit and he got hit around a little bit.  It took him a little while to settle down, and at that point, we were down six runs.   But we battled back and gave ourselves a chance to come back late," Sanchez said.

Freshman designated hitter Brandon Wilkerson hit his second triple in as many games in the top of the fourth inning, which scored Radford to make it a 6-2 contest.  The Aggies made it a 6-4 game in the fifth on a two-RBI double to centerfield by first baseman Freeman.  

B-CU extended its lead to 7-4 in the seventh, but the Aggies weren't finished.  A double down the left field line by Radford brought home Wilkerson, and cut the lead back down to two runs at 7-5.  Radford was left stranded as B-CU reliever Jordan Dailey retired the final two batters to end the game and secure the victory and pick up his fifth save.  

A&T starter Paulino picked up the loss, his third, allowing seven runs on 11 hits in 7.0 innings with three walks.  Jamal Clark tossed a shutout ninth for the Aggies.  Freeman, Radford and Wilkerson each ended the game with two hits.   Gabriel Hernandez picked up the win for the Wildcats.