JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (February 25, 2017) – North Carolina A&T softball started the Jacksonville Tournament 0-2 falling to Akron 6-1 and tournament host Jacksonville 3-2 at Pruitt Softball Complex on Saturday. The Aggies (6-8) wrapped up with eight hits with only three runners left on base against Jacksonville in their second loss of the day. Raven Gray and Kimberly Brunson each brought their veteran experience to the plate against Jacksonville, going 2-for-3 while Jillian Nobles finished with an RBI. Meanwhile, sophomore Zadasia Waddell improved to 11-for-18 this season at the plate after getting one of the team's two hits along with a sacrifice RBI against Akron.
Gray led off the game against the Jacksonville Dolphins with a double to right field as one of the Aggies five hits in the inning, followed by Zadia Davis who singled to Ciara Jones in the circle to put runners on first and second. A ground out from Waddell advanced the runners and a single up the middle from Nobles scored Gray while Davis moved to third. While Nobles was caught trying to steal second, Davis was able to score on the throw to second to give the Aggies a 2-0 advantage. With no runners on base, Nathaly Pacheco doubled down the left field line followed by Brunson who singled up the middle. While Brunson advanced to second on the throw, Pacheco was thrown out at home from shortstop Danielle Baker for the final out of the inning.
Jacksonville responded in the bottom of the inning on an infield single from Allie McCourt who advanced to second on the bunt sacrifice bunt from Jones and eventually reached home on a sacrifice fly from Madison Ragan to take the score to 2-1 after one inning.
Jacksonville added two hits in the top of the fifth to score the final two runs of the game. Mackenzie Buss singled down the left field line and then advanced to second from Jordan Daniels. A two-run RBI single from Ragan would score two to give the Dolphins a 3-2 advantage. The Aggies went down in order in their final two innings of offense as Dolphins were able to hold on to their narrow lead.
The Aggies found themselves down early against Akron as the Zips took advantage of two N.C. A&T errors, starting with Ashley Sims reaching on an error from Waddell in the circle, and a walk then single would score the first game of the game and Taylor Kirian would add another run as Alyssa Nicholas was hit by a pitch. While the Zips added another run in the second and the fifth, the Aggies would try to make their bats work in the fifth. After Nobles grounded out to shortstop, Stephanie Williams reached first on an error and eventually advanced to second. A wild pitch moved Williams to third and a ground out to second from Waddell put the Aggies on the board down 4-1. Akron, however, added two more in the sixth to close out the game.
N.C. A&T will close out the Jacksonville tournament with games against Akron and Jacksonville starting at 9:30 a.m., and 2:30 p.m., respectively.
