EAST GREENSBORO – Eight runs surrendered in the top of the first inning proved fatal for the North Carolina A&T baseball club, dropping their weekend series-opener to the Campbell Fighting Camels, 14-10, inside War Memorial Stadium on Thursday night.
The loss drops the Aggies to 12-20 overall and 1-9 in Big South play. The Camels improved to 20-12 and 9-1.
The Camel came in as a dangerous offensive team, scoring 108 runs and smacking 31 home runs over their last nine games. That trend continued in a big way early Thursday night.
Jarrod Belbin led off the game with a single through the right side but was quickly erased when freshman catcher Canyon Brown threw him out trying to swipe second base.
Drew Winters and Zach Neto were both hit by a pitch before both stole to advance 90 feet into scoring position. Logan Jordan walked to load the bases before Connor Denning beat out an infield single to shortstop allowing Winters to score to make it 1-0.
Drake Pierson stepped to the plate and launched an opposite-field grand slam over the short porch wall in right field to increase the lead to 5-0. The Camels eventually batted around, and in Belbin's second at-bat of the inning, he launched a two-run missile over the wall in right center field to give the Camels the early eight-run lead.
Freshman right-hander Jaheim Brown (L, 1-5), who started the game on the bump for A&T, left the game in the fifth with a final line of 4.1 innings pitched, with 10 runs surrendered on 10 hits.
The Camels led by as much as 12, 14-2, going into the Aggies sixth inning.
The Aggies got their bats going toward the back-half of the game, scoring seven runs between the sixth and seventh innings.
Chet Sikes tallied an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to make it 12-3. In the seventh, freshman Sabin Roane was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Brown looped a single into shallow center field, and with two runners on, junior Cameran Brantley stepped into the box.
Brantley ran the count full before tattooing a pitch he liked over the wall toward East Lindsay Street past right field. It marked his first home run since Feb. 26 against UMass-Lowell.
Junior Anthony Hennings kept things going with a single. He was advanced to second on a groundout from Xavier Bussey before junior Cort Maynard roped a double off the wall in left center field to score him and make it a 14-7 ballgame. Sikes singled and advanced to second on a throwing error from Neto that allowed Maynard to score.
Sophomore Shemar Dalton singled just past the outstretched glove of Camels second baseman Dylan Koontz to bring around Sikes from second, and all of a sudden, it was a five-run ball game, 14-9.
Freshman LHP Stirling Thomas made quick work of Campbell in the top of the eighth, enabling the A&T bats to stay hot, and they did.
Brantley sliced a one-out single to left center before Hennings doubled, putting two runners in scoring position. Sophomore Noah Lea drew a walk to load the bases, with Maynard coming to the plate. The junior fouled out toward the Aggie bullpen in foul territory in right field, deep enough to score Brantley from third to make it 14-10. But a flyout from Sikes ended the threat.
Trailing by four, A&T was unable to get anything going in the home ninth.
Hennings paced the offense with his four hits, while Brantley tallied a team-high three RBI on his home run.
Belbin turned in a 4-for-6 line, including three RBI. Pierson accrued three hits and five RBI for Campbell.
