BUIES CREEK, N.C.-The North Carolina A&T baseball team
got off to a quick start, but the powerful Campbell offense got the better of
Aggie pitching on Tuesday evening at Taylor Field, as A&T fell to Campbell 18-5.
The Aggies (12-20, 6-6 MEAC) walked a season-high eight CU
batters and allowed 12 hits in the contest.
The 18 runs were the most the Aggies have allowed in a single game this
season. But Campbell was no easy
opponent, as they entered the game batting average of .324 with 98 extra-base
hits as a team. Their strong offense
took advantage of the struggles from A&T pitchers.
"That was a rough start.
We had to improvise a little bit with our starters," Sanchez said,
adding that starter Andrew Cook might not have been as prepared as he wanted
since he was called upon to start a day earlier than he expected. "I asked him and he said he wanted to pitch."
A&T reliever RHP Cook got the starting nod, as scheduled
starter LHP Ruben Torrellas was a game-day scratch due to a doctor's
appointment for a hip injury. In his
second start of the year, Cook allowed six runs on four hits with three walks
in two innings. He performed well in the
first two innings but ran into trouble in the third inning.
"He did [get up in the zone] and then he was not working
ahead. He got behind in the count,"
Sanchez said of Cook. "We gave them too many free passes. They only walked one guy and struck out 12."
Right fielder Dairio Little had a great day at the plate for
A&T, finishing 3-for-5 with two RBI.
Marquis Riley and Michael Radford had two hits in the contest as well
for A&T. The Aggies out-hit the
Fighting Camels (27-7) 13-12, but left nine runners stranded in the
contest.
The Aggies drew first blood, taking a 5-0 lead in the second
inning. With one out, freshman
centerfielder Bo McMillan slammed a triple to right field. He came around to score on a single to right field by sophomore catcher Stefan
Jordan. Freshman designated hitter
Brandon Wilkerson then reached on an error as the ball bounced off the chest of
second baseman Michael Felton.
With two on and one
out, shortstop Michael Radford hit an infield single toward third. With the bases loaded, left fielder Andre
McKoy hit a single up the middle to make it a 2-0 game. Little then hit the ball, and it bounced off
Campbell starter Heath Bowers and went up the middle. Little reached first safely on the hit, and
two runners scored. Senior second
baseman Riley grounded out to the second baseman, and McKoy scored on the play
to make it a 5-0 lead for A&T.
The Camels were able to take the lead by the third inning. Third
baseman David Olson hit an infield single to score a run, and first baseman Nick
Ray tied the game at 5 with a sacrifice fly to right field. The Camels then scored the next two runs on
wild pitches to take a 7-5 lead. Cook
got Graham to fly out to left to get out of the inning.
The Camels added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth
to take a 10-5 lead over the Aggies. They
put the game away with a six-run fifth.
"It was a rough game overall. We've got to clear it out of our system and
be ready to play tomorrow. It's another
good team we're going to play and we've got to be ready to go. No slacking off. We've got to try to catch some momentum for
the weekend," said Sanchez.
The Aggies will continue their road swing this week with a
trip to the Commonwealth of Virginia to take on Radford on Wednesday at 6 p.m. A&T will be heading to Durham this
weekend to take on the N.C. Central Eagles on Saturday and Sunday for a crucial
three-game series. The Aggies and
Eagles are both tied for second place at 6-6 in the Southern Division of the
MEAC entering into the series.
