GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T junior college transfer Will Greene had one of the best outings of the young baseball season against a hot-hitting Big South team in Gardner-Webb. The defense behind him was also solid.
But Gardner-Webb (9-0) remained undefeated because did not muster enough offense to overtake the Runnin' Bulldogs in a 1-0 loss Wednesday evening at War Memorial Stadium. Greene (0-2) took the loss despite not giving up an earned run in six innings pitched while striking out seven in 92 pitches thrown.
“I thought Will was great today and he set the tone for our other guys who pitched today,” said head coach Ben Hall. “That's what we need – guys to come in and eat up some innings for us.”
Sophomore Myles Sowell led the Aggies offensively by going 2-for-3 for a team that had only three hits for the game.
“We also need guys who are going to stand in the batter's box and get hits,” Hall continued. “I thought we had some opportunities to score runs early because their guy was not throwing strikes, but we didn't execute. I thought we were aggressive when we didn't need to be and not aggressive enough when we needed it.”
GWU came into the game hitting .314 as a team with five of the seven players with more than 20 at-bats batting better than .300. But Greene showed resiliency in pitching his way out some early jams. With runners at first and third in the first inning, Greene struck out Danny Sullivan to end the threat. He gave up a leadoff double in the second before striking out the side to keep the game scoreless.
Greene helped himself out again in the third. After giving up a one-out single to Tyler Best, he picked off of first base for the second out in the inning. The Runnin' Bulldogs then started a two-out rally as Paul Trick singled and Colling Thacker walked. But another Greene strikeout ended the inning.
The only run of the game came after two passed balls allowed Best to reach third base in the fifth inning. Thacker brought him home on an RBI sacrifice fly to right field.
“When you have a 1-0 game like that you know it is going to come down to situational hitting and executing effectively in those situations whether you're up there swing away or lay down the bunt. You've got to step up and do what you're supposed to do with the bat your hand.”
N.C. A&T (1-7) did have their chances. In three different innings, they advanced a runner to third or were not able to bring him home. In the seventh, Jarrett Norman walked and Jason King reached on an error to put runners at first and second with two outs. The Runnin' Bulldogs took out LHP Tyler Johnson and replaced him with RHP Wil Sellers to face the right-hand bat of pinch-hitter Joey Hill. Sellers struck out Hill to end the Aggies threat.
Sellers pitched two additional innings to pick up his second of the season. Aaron Stewart (1-0) got the win after pitching five innings, striking out seven and walking three. Aggie left-handers Matt Stanley and Danny Garrett combined to pitch three innings of hitless and scoreless relief.
N.C. A&T returns to action this weekend when they host Iona for a three-game series Friday (3pm), Saturday (3pm) and Sunday (1pm).
