Baseball | 4/16/2021 8:23:00 PM
Box Score
EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T Aggies got the weekend started in the right direction thanks to the long ball and a solid start on the stump Friday afternoon in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) baseball play.
Multiple home runs from sophomore Cameran Brantley and a solid pitching outing from Cole Parks led the Aggies to an 8-2 triumph over the Florida A&M (FAMU) Ratters inside War Memorial Stadium.
The Aggies improved to 10-24 overall and 5-8 in the MEAC.
"Good ballgame," said A&T coach Ben Hall. "The guys really stuck with the game. We got a great start from Cole Parks, and the hitters responded when we needed it."
The A&T tied a season-high for hits with 14 on Friday. Brantley went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored for his first career multi-home run game. He is also the first Aggie this season, with multiple home runs in a game.
Brantley was one of five Aggies to record a multi-hit game. Senior shortstop Dustin Baber came into the day hitless in his last nine at-bats but went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored.
A&T fell behind 2-0 in the third inning. A&T scored all of their runs in the fourth and fifth innings to blow the game open.
Brantley led off the fourth with a bomb over the right field fence to make it 2-1. Junior Justin Williams then hit a one-out single up the middle before eventually advancing to second on a passed ball. Baber brought Williams home with an RBI single to tie the game at 2.
Williamson followed, and so did a wild sequence. Williamson blasted a long ball onto the street past right field, but umpires called him out after he missed home plate, so only Baber's run counted, giving A&T a 3-2 lead.
The Aggies nearly batted around, but sophomore infielder Tony Mack flew out to left field, ending the frame with Brantley on deck.
He got his turn at-bat the next inning; however, as Brantley sent the first pitch, he saw toward East Lindsay Street with a homer to right to give the Aggies a 4-2 lead. A&T compiled five runs on seven hits in the frame, highlighted by Mack's two-out, two-run RBI double down the right-field line. The Aggies did bat around this time, but a strikeout from Brantley would end the threat.
After the third inning, the Rattlers had no answer for A&T's pitching staff.
Senior right-hander Cole Parks (W, 3-2) got the start for the Aggies and went 6.0 innings, compiling 10 strikeouts, two shy of his career-high. He gave up just two runs in the third on three hits.
Senior RHP Leon Davidson and sophomore LHP Peyton Winebarger combined for 3.0 shutout innings with five strikeouts as Winebarger recorded four of those strikeouts.
"Great to see Leon and Peyton come in and pitch really clean innings to finish the game," said Hall. "We have to come out with big focus and energy tomorrow."
The teams will battle twice more Saturday in two seven-inning doubleheaders beginning at 1 p.m. inside War Memorial Stadium.
