GREENSBORO – For the second straight day the North Carolina A&T scored a ton of runs but were not able to come away with a win. On Wednesday the Aggies saw a ninth-inning rally come up short in a 12-10 loss to Appalachian State at War Memorial Stadium. A
On Tuesday, the Aggies scored eight runs against Gardner-Webb at WMS. The Aggies leading hitter Brandon Wilkerson went 2-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored. A.J. Hunt and Milton Rivera also drove in two runs.
“The last two days the guys have come out and played hard and made the other team earn it,” said interim head coach Ben Hall. “Give App State credit, I know they haven't had the season they wanted, but they came in and swung the bats real well in the situations they needed to. We kept battling back to give ourselves a chance to win in the ninth and just didn't get the hit we needed.”
The Aggies (3-23) actually battled back twice on Wednesday. A two-out error helped the Mountaineers (9-21) score four unearned runs in a seven-run fourth inning that saw the visitors take an 8-2 lead.
“Being tuned in and making routine plays is the key to baseball,” said Hall. “It's not about the great play, it's about the routine play. The easiest ones are the ones you have to focus in on the most. We didn't break on it in the infield, and we were just late getting there. No one play decides a ballgame, but if you make it, it's a different ballgame.”
But the Aggies put up four runs in their fourth and Brandon Wilkerson's two-out, two-run RBI in the fifth tied the game at 8.
Noah Holmes' two-run RBI double in the App State sixth gave the Mountaineers an 11-8 as they scored three runs in the inning. Dillon Dobson added to that lead with a solo home run in the eighth. It was the fourth home run of the day for Mountaineer batters.
App State right-hander Caleb Mann, who relieved starter Sean Mason (RHP) in the fifth and who struck out eight batters, looked to have things under control in the ninth. He struck out Lance Jensen and Micah Carmony to open the last frame. But he walked senior Dylan Hipp on nine pitches. He then battled Hunt for six pitches before Hunt roped his 3-2 pitch over the left field fence to move the Aggies to within two, 12-10.
McCann walked Timothy Ravare and therefore had his night ended as Dallas DeVrieze (LHP) came on to face freshman Myles Sowell. Sowell reached on an error by DeVrieze which was followed by Wilkerson reaching on an error to load the bases. With the go-ahead run at first, Rivera grounded out to second to end the game. McCann (1-1) picked up the win while DeVrieze (1) got the save. Right-hander Charles Cantrell (0-3) took the loss in relief.
The Aggies will host N.C. Central in a three-game conference series to begin Friday at 1 p.m., at War Memorial Stadium. The final game of the series will be played Saturday at 1 p.m.
“Yesterday and today should give us a lot of confidence,” said Hall. “There is no reason why we shouldn't go in a swing the bats the way we did today and yesterday (against NCCU). It's a matter of taking the mindset, the approach, and the execution into those games and make it happen.”
