Florida A&M (17-22, 13-8 MEAC) at North Carolina A&T (8-34, 5-15 MEAC)
Date(s): May 2-3, 2015
Time(s): Saturday: 5 p.m.; Sunday: Noon & 3 p.m.
Facility: War Memorial Stadium
Special Dedication: The athletics department will honor the 1974/75 and 2005 MEAC championship teams.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Saturday
A&T: RHP Brian Poag (3-4, 5.31 ERA vs. FAMU: RHP Chase Jerrell (1-4, 6.39 ERA)
Sunday
A&T: RHP Charles Cantrell (0-6, 10.80 ERA vs. FAMU: LHP Ricky Page (0-0, 2.08 ERA)
A&T: RHP Mitchell McQueen (0-2, 6.49 ERA) vs. FAMU: RHP Ryan Anderson (0-3, 4.26 ERA)
GREENSBORO – The 2015 North Carolina A&T baseball team will close out the regular season by celebrating some of its glorious past on Saturday. The Aggies will face Florida A&M in the final three-game series of the season.
The Aggies and the Rattlers will play a single game on Saturday starting at 5 p.m., at War Memorial Stadium. The two teams will close out the series by playing a noon doubleheader on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Aggies will honor the 1974 and '75 MEAC champion Aggies as well as the 2005 team that won the school's first and only championship of the new millennium 10 years ago.
The ceremony for the 1974/75 team will begin at 4:45 p.m., with the ceremony for the '05 team starting five minutes later. Both teams possessed great talent. The Aggies won the championship outright in 1974 and were co-champions in '75. They were led by legendary coach Mel “Big Ten” Groomes.
Among the players on the team were Al Holland, a left-hand pitcher who went on to have a productive and successful major league career. He is the only HBCU player in the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Willie Morrison played shortstop and third base while Jeffrey Jeffries was the Aggies starting second baseman. A&T Sports Hall of Famer Ralph Brown was the left fielder and Ernie Gaskins manned center field. Other notables on the team included Keltz Summers, Curt Groomes and Artis Stanfield.
The 2005 team stopped Bethune-Cookman's run of six straight championship when they took the title at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla. The '05 Aggies were led by head coach Keith Shumate who had the time was the only paid coach on staff. Outfielder Jeremy Jones batted better than .400 that season to earn All-American honors. The team also featured such Aggie greats as Charlie Gamble who hit 13 home runs, Joe McIntyre who was a clutch-hitting designated hitter/slash outfielder and Nick Mayo who was a defensive whiz at shortstop.
The ace on the team was Michael Hauff who logged 108.1 innings that season. John Primus, Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American in 2005, was No. 2 man on the staff with a 7-3 mark, a 3.25 ERA and 73 strikeouts. The 2005 Aggies went on to play Clemson in the NCAA regional. The Tigers featured a second baseman named Ben Hall who is currently the Aggies interim head coach.
A&T only trailed the Tigers 2-1 going into the seventh inning. The Aggies had to pull Hauff in the seventh, however, after 150 pitches. The Tigers went on to break the game open and won 12-2. Oral Roberts would eliminate the Aggies from the regional the next day. Jones and Gamble would go on to be selected in separate MLB drafts.
