TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (May 14, 2016) – North Carolina A&T saw its baseball season come to an end on Saturday with 12-2 and 7-2 losses to Florida A&M in doubleheader play at Moore-Kittles Field. The two losses completed the season sweep for Florida A&M who swept both Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference series from the Aggies.
Junior Timothy Ravare led the Aggies in the first game by going 2-for-3. Freshman Jarrett Norman drove in both Aggie runs in Game 1. Home runs benefited the Rattlers in the first contest. Ben Ellzey's two-run homer to give the Rattlers a 6-0 lead. Marlon Gibbs added an RBI double in the sixth inning to add to the lead.
N.C. A&T came alive in the visitor seventh as Norman got into the home run game. After a single by junior Kyle Clary, Norman launched a homer to left field to cut the lead down to 7-2. It was Norman's third home run of the season. Two of those home runs have come in last 35 at-bats. But Gibbs brought the game to and in the home seventh. Down 8-2, Gibbs stepped to the plate with the bases loaded.
He drove a Danny Garrett (LHP) pitch over the fence in left field to end the game because by MEAC rules the game is over if a team is leading by 10 after seven innings. Right-hander Tevelle Clark (2-3) took the loss. JoJo Durden (2-2) got the win.
The second game of the doubleheader was scheduled for seven. In his final game as an Aggie, Lance Jensen led the way by going 3-for-3. Sophomore Myles Sowell was 2-for-2 with two runs scored, while freshman Jason King went 2-for-2. Unlike the first two games of the series, N.C. A&T got off to a good start. After a leadoff triple by Sowell, Ravare brought him home by grounding out to shortstop A.J. Elkins.
FAMU responded with an RBI sacrifice fly to right by Elkins to score Dylan Dillard in the second to tie the game at 1. N.C. A&T regained the lead in the third as Sowell singled, advanced to second on a groundout before scoring from second on a Chase Jarrell wild pitch. FAMU tied the game in their half of the third on an Alec Wong home run. FAMU would put the game away with two runs in the fourth and three runs in the fifth. Aggies right-hander Will Greene (1-9) took the loss while Jarrell (6-3) picked up the win.
N.C. A&T closes out at 13-41 overall and 6-18 in the MEAC. The Aggies made a three-game improvement over last season, and have a young nucleus of power hitters led by sophomore Milton Rivera who started all 54 games. Rivera closes the season batting .349 with seven home runs, 26 RBI, 19 doubles, two triples and an impressive .553 slugging percentage. Rivera leads the conference in doubles, hits, runs scored, total bases. He also ranks in the top-50 nationally in hits (35th), runs scored (14th) and total bases (41st).
Adan Ordonez is also only a sophomore. A year after winning MEAC Rookie of the Year, he followed up by hitting .332 with three home runs, 14 doubles and a team-leading 45 RBI. He is second in the conference in runs batted in. Rivera had 28 multiple-hit games, reached base in 28 straight games during the season and had a 21-game hitting streak in 2016.
As a speedster, solid defensive center fielder and leadoff man, Sowell is also scheduled to return. Ravare continued his steady improvement. After batting .086 as a freshman and .286 as a sophomore, Ravare finished his 2016 campaign by hitting .306 with nine doubles and two triples.
Junior first baseman Kyle Clary also showed major improvement this season at the plate going from a .221 batting average as a sophomore to batting .300 in 2016.
Ben Hall, who finished his second full season but his first without the interim head coach label, has a large recruiting class coming in. It should help further improve the Aggies offense as well as help them improve on a 9.16 team ERA.
