EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T baseball team lost a 15-inning heartbreaker at the hands of Lehigh, 9-3, on Friday night inside War Memorial Stadium. The loss drops the Aggies to 6-7 and ends their four-game winning streak.
 
"Give Lehigh credit, they were the better team today," said N.C. A&T coach Ben Hall. "Their pitchers competed on the mound and we just weren't able to execute in big situations."
 
The Aggies trailed Lehigh (4-8), 2-1, in the bottom of the seventh. Then, senior catcher Ryne Stanley doubled to left field. Junior outfielder Justin Rodriguez followed with a single and a fielding error in the outfield allowed him to advance to third and scored Stanley to tie the game at 2.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, redshirt freshman Connor Knapp drew a walk and senior Shane Faulk came in to pinch run. Faulk stole second before senior outfielder Camden Williamson extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single through the gap to score Faulk and give the Aggies a 3-2 advantage.
 
Senior right hander Evan Gates came on in the top of the ninth with a save opportunity. However, the Mountain Hawks loaded the bases and Gates, with no balls and two strikes, hit Lehigh's Quinn McKenna to bring in a run and tie the game at 3. 
 
Both teams were locked in a stalemate through the next several innings heading into the top of the 15^th. Lehigh's Adam Retzbach smacked a leadoff triple into center field, a blow that began a six-run, five-hit frame to give Lehigh a 9-3 lead. 
 
Chase Carlson also hit a one-out, three-run home run over the right field wall in the inning, his first of the season.
 
"We had a bunch of run scoring opportunities out there and we weren't able to get the quality at-bat we needed," said Hall. "In tough games, you have to make every opportunity count."
 
The Aggies will look ahead to game two of their three-game weekend series against Lehigh tomorrow, March 7 at 3 p.m. at War Memorial Stadium.