CHARLESTON, S.C. – North Carolina A&T captured their first baseball series victory of the season, routing The Citadel in Sunday's rubber game, 12-1, at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in non-conference play.
"Really proud of our guys for bouncing back," said A&T coach Ben Hall. "Winning on Sundays is about toughness, and I could tell from the minute we walked in we were locked in."
The Aggies (4-7) got an unbelievable start from senior right-handed pitcher Cole Parks (2-0), who went 8.0 innings allowing only one run on seven hits with seven strikeouts. He had the Bulldogs shutout through seven innings.
"Cole was just special," said Hall. "He is so reliable, and his competitive nature sets an awesome tone for us on Sundays."
A&T jumped on the Bulldogs (4-6) early courtesy of a three-run moon shot over the center field wall from freshman Connor Knapp in the second inning.
The blast was the first of his career. The Aggies extended their lead to four in the third after a sacrifice fly from junior infielder Justin Williams.
A tremendous seventh inning where the Aggies did major damage blew the game open. They plated seven runs to take an 11-0 lead.
With the bases loaded, freshman infielder Trevor Sheehan laced a double to left center field that scored three. Knapp followed and reached on a dropped fly out by the Bulldogs third baseman. Junior outfielder Justin Rodriguez smashed his third home run of the season out to dead center field to score three more for a 10-0 lead.
Senior catcher Ryne Stanley kept the momentum going by doubling to left field. Senior shortstop Dustin Baber brought him home with a single down the right field line.
Ten different players recorded a hit in the game for A&T, with three notching multi-hit games in Stanley, Baber and Rodriguez. Sheehan, Knapp and Rodriguez all had a team-high three RBI.
"I really liked what I saw from the lineup," said Hall. "We threatened them one through nine in the order today. The guys executed a sound approach all day, jumping all over mistakes."
The Bulldogs were able to salvage a run in the bottom of the eighth, but Stanley added another hit, this time an RBI single, to grow the lead to 12-1 in the visitor's ninth. In addition to his two hits, Stanley also had an RBI and a run scored.
The Aggies will welcome UNC Greensboro to War Memorial Stadium at 4 p.m., Tuesday, March 9.
