FARMVILLE, Va. – The North Carolina A&T baseball team saw tremendous improvement in its pitching over the weekend despite losing two of three to the Longwood Lancers at Bolding Stadium.
The Lancers won the series by defeating the Aggies 6-2 Sunday evening. The Aggies dropped to 4-30 on the season even though they got right-hander Mitchell McQueen's best performance of the season. In 74 pitches, McQueen went six innings and did not give up an earned run. He struck out three and walked only one Lancer.
A&T did not get its normal offensive production, however. Sunday marked the first time in 10 games that the Aggies did not have someone in the lineup have a multiple-hit game. Lancers starter Travis Burnett (RHP) also went six innings before giving up the ball. He struck out nine, walked one and gave up two runs.
Erik Montero drove in two runs for the Aggies. Those two runs came in the fourth inning when Montero launched a two-run homer over the left field fence to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead. The Lancers (16-18) took advantage of a few Aggie miscues in the fifth to finally score a run off McQueen.
After Alex Lewis doubled to right, the Aggies tried to have him picked off at second. But the throw went into the outfield allowing Lewis to reach third. Sammy Miller then reached on an error, which brought Lewis home from third.
The last batter McQueen faced was Brandon Delk who doubled to right field but was thrown out trying to go to third. Danny Garrett (LHP) replaced McQueen in the seventh and surrendered the tying run as Miller singled up the middle to score Michael Osinski who reached on a walk.
The Lancers scored four more runs in the eighth as two doubles and a two-run RBI single by Brandon Harvell led to the big inning. Ryan Jones (RHP) came on the in the Aggies eighth when the Aggies had two on and one out. He loaded the bases by hitting sophomore Kyle Clary with an 0-1 pitch. But Jones settled down and struck out Adan Ordonez and Montero to get out of the jam.
Jones (1-0) then picked up the win by retiring the Aggies in order in the ninth. Garrett (0-2) took the loss for A&T. Harvell and Miller had two RBI apiece for the Lancers.
The Aggies return to action Wednesday night when they travel to Boone, N.C., to face Appalachian State at 6 p.m. The Aggies next conference series starts on Saturday when they travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., to face Bethune-Cookman twice on Saturday and once on Sunday.
