CHARLOTTE (April 13, 2016) – Right-hand reliever Leon Hunter, Jr., was strong out of the bullpen and sophomores Milton Rivera and Adan Ordonez came up with key RBI late to the lead the Aggies to a big 9-7 midweek win over the Charlotte 49ers Wednesday night at Hayes Stadium.
It was the Aggies first win over the 49ers since the 2006 season. Senior Ryan Jantsch led the Aggies by going 2-for-5 with three RBI. Ordonez went 3-for-5 with two RBI while Rivera finished with a 2-for-4 night that included him scoring three times. Rivera's hitting streak now stands at 20 games and he has reached base safely in his last 25 games.
Rivera and his teammates entered the sixth inning trailing 6-5. But they would come out of the inning with the lead for good. Junior Kyle Clary, who had a hitting streak of 14 games earlier this season, singled to open the inning to extend his current hitting streak to eight. Charlotte put runners on first and second when junior Keenan Herring walked.
Sophomore Forest Kimbrell advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt leading to Timothy Ravare's sac fly to center field that scored Clary to tie the game at 6. Rivera then gave the Aggies the lead with an RBI double down the left field line. Rivera went to third on a wild pitch and Ordonez was able to reach on an error, scoring Rivera for an 8-6 N.C. A&T lead.
Charlotte (15-19) began its attempt at a rally when Hunter Jones opened with a single in the 49ers sixth. N.C. A&T turned to RHP A.J. Padmore to replace LHP Matt Stanley. Padmore hit Reece Hampton with a pitch to put runners on first and second. Brett Netzer loaded the bases with a single which led to the entry of Hunter with no one out.
Hunter made an immediate impact by getting Logan Sherer to fly out. T.J. Nichting did produce an RBI sac fly to center to score Jones to bring the 49ers to within one at 8-7. Hunter got Drew Ober to fly out to end the inning. Hunter would go on to give up two hits in the seventh, one hit in the eighth and a hit in the ninth but pitched his way out of each situation mostly with fly ball outs. He did get an inning-ending double play in the eighth.
The Aggies added a run for Hunter in the eighth with an RBI single from Ordonez who scored Kimbrell who singled and stole second. Hunter finished out the game by pitching four innings of scoreless baseball to improve to 1-2 on the season. Austin Wynn (RHP) took the loss to drop to 0-2.
The Aggies improved to 9-27 on the season as they head into a big weekend conference series in Durham against North Carolina Central with the first two games occurring on Saturday as a part of a 1 p.m., doubleheader.
