MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (February 18, 2017) – North Carolina A&T lost its second straight game at the 2017 Caravelle Resort's Baseball at the Beach Tournament on Saturday as the Richmond Spiders defeated the Aggies 3-1 at Pelican Park.
Despite the loss, the Aggies can also look to the fact that they had their second straight strong pitching performance. A day after junior Marcello Batencas gave up no earned runs over six innings, another junior college transfer, Josh Bottenfield followed by going six strong innings and giving up three runs. Bottenfield only walked one and struck out three. Also on the upside for the Aggies, they got three innings of scoreless relief from Matt Stanley (2/3 innings), Josh Stikeleather (faced one batter) and Noah Dyals (2 1/3 innings).
Unfortunately, the Aggies have only scored a combined two runs at the tournament, and produced six hits on Saturday. Senior first baseman Kyle Clary led the way with two hits. Layne Looney got the win for the Spiders as he gave up one run, unearned, over six innings while striking out six and walking one. Trailing 2-0, N.C. A&T broke through against Looney in the third inning
Junior Myles Sowell hit a one-out single to center field. Junior Milton Rivera followed with a single and advanced to second on the throw when Sowell gambled by trying to take third. Sowell's gamble paid off handsomely as he not only advanced to third but went home on the bad relay throw to third by Looney. The Aggies third-inning rally was hampered when Rivera was thrown at third trying to steal and junior Greg White struck out to end the inning.
The Spiders were able to take a 3-1 lead in the fourth on a R.J. Watters RBI single to center field. N.C. A&T had their best chance to cut into the lead in the fourth. Kyle Clary started a two-out rally as he and Camden Williamson hit back-to-back singles. But the Aggies could not score as Looney struck out A.J. Hunt to end the inning.
Richmond's pitching was pretty tough from there. The Aggies did not put a runner in scoring position after the fourth. Bottenfield did take the loss after Richmond got to him in the second by opening the inning with a single from Jonathan de Marte and an RBI triple from Daniel Brumbaugh. Ryan Shaw secured the early 2-0 with an RBI sacrifice fly.
N.C. A&T will try to salvage a win at the Baseball at the Beach event on Sunday when they take on Western Carolina at 3 p.m.
