EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T baseball team suffered a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Dayton Flyers in Sunday's series finale inside War Memorial Stadium.
A late-inning comeback by the Flyers fueled the series sweep. The Flyers offense came alive in the visitor's eighth, with the Aggies leading 3-0. The inning started with right-hand reliever Xavier Meachem striking out Marcos Pujols. Andrew Casey followed with a walk before Keagan Calero doubled to right center, putting runners on second and third.
A wild pitch from Meachem allowed Casey to score and Calero to move over to third. Omar Daniels drew a walk and advanced to second on another wild pitch. Jose Martinez struck out for the eighth time in the three-game series to put the Aggies one out away from getting out of the jam.
But Ben Jones followed with a single to left-center field to score two more runs and tie the game at 3. Meachem threw his third wild pitch of the inning to move Jones to third but avoided catastrophe by striking out Henry Strmecki to end the frame.
The Aggies could not answer in the home half of the eighth, and in the ninth, the Flyers put together a one-run, two-hit inning to take a 4-3 lead on a pinch-hit RBI single from Matthew Maloney.
A&T looked like they could have some life in the bottom of the ninth after junior Cameran Brantley drew a lead-off walk. However, that ended all too quickly as junior Cort Maynard flew out to left field, and then sophomore Camden Jackson grounded into a game-ending double play.
"You don't build your program to get swept at home, and we talked about that," said A&T coach Ben Hall. "Our team came out and defended our opportunity to win a game here. They know it's important not to get swept at home. They had the right energy, aggressiveness, commitment, and competitive spirit, but that doesn't win games in the end. It's execution; it's taking care of little situations."
Junior left-hander Peyton Winebarger got the start Sunday afternoon for A&T (0-3) and gave the best outing of his career, going 5.0 innings, allowing only four hits with a career-high seven strikeouts. His stellar start on the mound allowed the Aggies the opportunity to jump out to an early lead over the Flyers.
Junior infielder Anthony Hennings drew a one-out walk and trotted down to first base in the bottom of the second. Graduate infielder Alec Seaton followed that up with a double down the left field line that Strmecki misplayed, allowing Hennings to come around to score.
The Flyers had runners in scoring position on three separate occasions. But each time, Winebarger wiggled out of the jam. Winebarger held the Flyers at bay until freshman righty Jaheim Brown relieved him in the sixth.
Brown continued Winebarger's cause of keeping the Flyers scoreless, going 2.0 innings and allowing three hits while striking out five. Over the whole weekend, Brown pitched 4.1 innings of work and allowed five hits with seven strikeouts.
"I was happy with our pitching all weekend," said Hall. "I thought our starters threw better than those first two final scores. You know, we had a finger issue with Logan (Jarosz), and Peyton gave us a really quality start on Opening Weekend. That was great to see. The question mark going in was experience on our pitching staff and so, to get Jaheim out there. He's confident and has good stuff, and he's going to be really special here. Every year, someone will surprise you a little bit, but that doesn't surprise me that he pitched well this weekend. He's going to serve a big role for us as he continues to get better."
The Aggie offense was able to tack on two insurance runs in the seventh before Brown exited. The frame started with freshman catcher Canyon Brown getting hit by a pitch. Brantley moved him over to second with a single into left center field. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch before Maynard singled to shallow center to score Brown as Brantley went to third.
A balk was called on Dayton lefty Mark Manfredi that allowed Brantley to score for the 3-0 advantage. On Sunday, A&T totaled seven hits as a team, led by Hennings' 2-for-2 performance that included a run scored. Maynard and Seaton each added an RBI.
"We'll be okay," finished Hall. "We just have to hit the ground running and get better and find some consistency offensively."
