BOILING SPRING – North Carolina A&T senior right fielder Brandon Wilkerson continued his pursuit for the MEAC batting title as he went 3-for-5 Wednesday night in a 9-3 loss at Gardner-Webb's Sprangler Stadium.
Wilkerson is now batting .378 on the season, which ranks him second by Maryland Eastern Shore's Mike Escanilla .395 batting average. Wilkerson had his team-leading 14th multi-hit game. He has reached base safely in his last nine games. Wilkerson had two doubles on Wednesday, which gives him a team-leading 10.
Senior Brandon Mitchell went 1-for-3 with two runs scored to aid the Aggies. But the Runnin' Bulldogs scored eight runs over the first three innings to build a comfortable lead against A&T. The Bulldogs' big inning came in the second after they already had a 2-0 lead.
Henry Rundio doubled to left field off A&T starter Evan Miranda (LHP) to score Jacob Walker. Rundio would eventually score on a wild pitch to give the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead. Sam Fulginiti added another run when he flew out to center field to score Ryan Hodge on a sacrifice fly. Patrick Graham closed out the scoring with an RBI single to right to score Collin Thacker.
The Aggies scored their first run of the game in the third inning off an RBI double from Wilkerson that scored Mitchell. But GWU scored two more runs in their half of the third to take an 8-1 lead. A&T cut into that lead in the fifth inning as Dylan Hipp hit his second career home run with a two-run blast to right field.
A&T's offense stalled from there. The Aggies recorded only one hit after the fifth inning to seal the game for the Bulldogs. Jeremy Walker pitched struck out four over five-innings pitched to improve to 2-3 on the season. Five Bulldog relief pitchers combined to pitch the final four innings and did not give up a hit or a run. Miranda (0-6) took the loss.
Six Aggie relief pitchers gave up only one run after the third inning. Wilkerson will continue his pursuit for the Aggies batting title this weekend when A&T travels to Savannah, Ga., to face the Savannah State Tigers April 25-26 in a conference three-game series.
