EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T baseball was angry coming into their series finale against Lehigh Sunday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium. 
The Aggies had to use a ton of pitching in a 15-inning loss on Friday and they gave up 11 runs and 17 hits in a loss on Saturday. Their anger manifested itself in a pitching masterpiece from senior Cole Parks and a 1-0 win over the Mountain Hawks. 

The Aggies avoided the sweep to improve to 7-8. 

"When I talked to him last night, he said he was mad and he was going to pitch mad today," said N.C. A&T coach Ben Hall. "I said, 'good, we're going to need that.' We had to have that performance because our backs were against the wall in the series. That Friday game really burned up our pitching. We had a lot of confidence that he would come out as competitive as he did." 

Parks, a senior right-hander who transferred up from Division II Winston-Salem State after the Rams discontinued their baseball program, pitched a one-hit shutout over seven innings while striking out an impressive 11 Mountain Hawks. The Aggies won the game on an errant throw by the Mountain Hawks in the bottom of the ninth. 

Lehigh starter Luke Rettig was not too shabby either. The left-hander went seven innings while surrendering four hits and striking out four. Neither Parks nor Rettig earned a decision. Instead it was their replacements who had their fates decided. 

Sophomore RHP Timothy Davila entered the game in the top of the eighth. He was untouchable. Davila retired all six batters he faced doing it in 22 pitches thrown. Eighteen of those pitches were strikes. 

"Davila is coming on. He is a bit of a swingman who can do it all. He can start, he can pitch long relief, he has a good breaking ball and pitches with tempo," said Hall. "Anytime he gets in the game. He is going to give you a good chance to win." 

Lehigh (5-9) went with RHP Ryan Deom. Deom entered the game in the bottom of the eighth and retired the Aggies in order. 

In the ninth, freshman Connor Knapp hit Deom's 2-1 pitch into center field to open the frame. After Baber flew out to center, Knapp stole second. Senior Camden Williamson was walked intentionally to put runners on first and second for junior Zach McLean. McLean lined out to center leaving the game in the hands of sophomore Scott Meitzler. Or so it seemed. 

Meitzler hit a sharp groundball to third. It was scooped up nicely by Lehigh third baseman Gerard Sweeney. But Sweeney's throw bounced to first baseman Casey Rother and eventually hopped past his glove toward the Aggies dugout. Knapp raced around third to score the winning run. 

"I know the guys were frustrated off the first two games," said Hall. "We missed out on so many opportunities offensively, but you just have to keep getting better in games. It's a long season. Just because it didn't bring runners home like we wanted to in the first two games – we didn't bring home some runners today – doesn't mean it's not going to work out in the long run. 

Our guys just kept hanging in there and hanging in there and we were fortunate they made a mistake and we scored from second on it."

Davila (1-0) got the win while Deom (0-1) took the loss. Parks opened the game by striking out the side in the first. He also struck out the side in the third. 

"That's a heckuva ballgame to have on Sunday. Really both guys were outstanding," said Hall. "It was a well-pitched ballgame."

The Aggies return to action Wednesday, March 11 when they head to Raleigh, N.C., to play N.C. State at 6 p.m.