ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (May 12, 2016) – Throughout the 2016 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Softball Championship Tournament, sophomore Raven Gray proved why she was named first-team all-conference, but the Aggies were eliminated from the double elimination tournament on Thursday at Ormond Beach Complex.
They opened the tournament with an 8-5 loss to Northern Division No. 1 seed Delaware State before Hampton advanced in a heartbreaking 5-4 Aggies loss. Gray went 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI against DSU and 1-for-4 against Hampton.
The Hornets and Aggies faced one another for the fourth straight season in the MEAC tournament. A three-run fifth broke the game open for Delaware State as they took a 5-1 lead. Entering the sixth inning, however, Zadia Davis and Gray could not have set up Zadaisha Waddell any better. Waddell knocked a home run out to left field to put the Aggies back in the game. Delaware State pushed the lead back to four unfortunately. A two-run RBI single from Sandy Hawthorne and an RBI single up the middle by Rochelle Sablay gave the Hornets an 8-4 lead. Davis took advantage of two wild pitches in the seventh to add another run, but the Hornets three-run answer to the Aggies sixth proved to be too great a deficit to overcome.
Mohagony Headen took the loss after pitching 4.1 innings. Davis contributed at the plate by going 2-for-3 with two runs scored. The Hampton/Aggies thrilling contest was set up after the Pirates lost to Bethune-Cookman Thursday morning.
N.C. A&T and Hampton entered the seventh inning tied at 4. Hampton would score the go-ahead run as Hope Sobelewski was hit by a pitch from Headen, who also started the Aggies' second game of the day. Taylor McCoy then ripped a Headen pitch down the left field line. As McCoy tried to advance to second, she was thrown out on an exciting play with senior left fielder Janika May getting the ball to Headen who tossed it over to Alejandra Barcenas for the out at second.
Damage was done, however, as Sobelewski scored on the play. The bottom of the seventh proved frustrating for the Aggies as two diving catches by center fielder Diamond Ponds and an equally impressive catch by Sobelewski in left put an end to the Aggies 2016 season.
Headen (7-6) took the loss in both games. Hampton was able to start fast against her before she settled in and pitched well. Hampton's Diamond Ponds' leadoff single in the top of the first eventually led to her scoring on an RBI single from Taylor McCoy. Jada Phillips gave the Pirates a 2-0 lead on an RBI sacrifice fly that scored Sobelewski who reached on fielder's choice. The Aggies quickly responded, scoring three runs in their half of the first, aided heavily by senior Janika May's two-run RBI double. The Aggies took the game to 4-2 in the second with Kimberly Brunson's leadoff single and a wild pitch from Hampton starter Jada Fields. Brunson later scored on an error by Hampton third baseman Lorena Alvarez.
Hampton kept chipping away at N.C. A&T's lead, eventually tying the game at 4 in the fifth off an RBI double by McCoy. May ended her career by going 2-for-3 with two RBI. Barcenas, one of the best defensive shortstops to ever play at N.C. A&T, committed only one error in the final 17 games of her career. Only graduating two players, A&T will be able to keep building on their accomplishments from this season.
The Aggies conclude the season 17-32 with a 12-9 record at home. Gray, who is scheduled to return for her junior season, was the leader from the plate, finishing with a .369 batting average, 55 hits and a .975 fielding percentage. From the circle, Headen finished with a team-best 4.33 ERA. Waddell threw 114.1 innings with a 5.82 ERA and led the team with eight home runs.
Headen and Waddell were just two of the 11 freshmen on the Aggies roster this season. Head coach Kenya Peters plans to add to a freshman foundation that included Lorrin Turner who batted .333 in 37 games and Davis who batted .323 in 62 at-bats.
