CHARLOTTE – In his debut as an Aggie pitcher, freshman AJ Hunt had a rough outing. With the understanding that Hunt is much better than his first impression showed, North Carolina A&T interim head baseball coach Ben Hall was looking for another opportunity to get Hunt another appearance.
Hunt got that opportunity on Wednesday and put together a quality start even though the Aggies were unable to drive in runs in a 6-0 loss to Charlotte at Hayes Stadium.
Hunt (0-1) went 3.2 innings and surrendered three runs while striking out two and walking two in the loss.
“I thought he had a great start,” said Hall. “He is an athletic kid with a good arm. He threw some good pitches and filled up the zone. They are a good hitting team and they made some pretty good swings on good pitches.”
Hunt threw 59 pitches by the fourth inning and was pulled for freshman Danny Garrett. His roughest inning came in the third when he gave up a two-run RBI triple to Brett Netzer as the 49ers took a 3-0 lead. Garrett came in and pitched an inning and a third as he gave up an RBI single to Netzer in the fifth for a 4-0 49ers advantage.
Bryce Keziah then came in and pitched the sixth and seventh innings and was superb. He struck out three of the seven batters he faced. In five appearances and six innings pitched, Keziah has yet to give up a run.
“Bryce Keziah continues to throw well for us,” said Hall. “He is really showing a lot of promise and has a chance to be a great player for this program. But in order to win in Division I baseball you have to pitch well and you have to find ways to score runs.”
The Aggies (1-6) did swing the bats well on Wednesday. They recorded 10 hits, but could not produce the big hit as they hit into three double plays. Eric Montero led the way by going 2-for-4 and Kyle Clary had a 2-for-3 performance and he walked once.
Singles by Timothy Ravare, Lester Salcedo and Montero loaded the bases for the Aggies in the first. But Adan Ordonez struck out swinging to end the threat. The Aggies stranded 10 bases runners for the game. Josh Maciejewski (1-0) pitched 5.1 innings and surrendered seven hits and struck out three.
“Their starter did a good job of scattering our hits,” Hall said. “I was glad to see us putting the ball in play more and getting some hits, but we weren't able to push any runs across, and therefore we didn't get the result we needed.”
Netzer's three RBI led the 49ers. Derek Gallello, Logan Sherer, Alex Reynolds and Netzer had two hits apiece. The Aggies return home to War Memorial Stadium on Friday as they face Farleigh Dickinson at 3 p.m.
