EAST GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T baseball team dropped the finale of a three-game series against the High Point Panthers, 7-4, in 11 innings on Monday afternoon inside War Memorial Stadium in Big South Conference action.
The Aggies (13-33, 1-17 Big South) trailed 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and freshman Sabin Roane at the plate.
Roane kept the game going by drawing a walk to turn the lineup over and bring junior outfielder Cameran Brantley to the plate.
Despite facing a 1-2 count with two outs, Brantley delivered. He lined an opposite-field double down the left field line. Roane got waved around third by assistant coach Elliott McCummings and beat the throw home to tie the game at 4.
With a chance to win it in the ninth, junior infielder Anthony Hennings flew out to left field to send the game into extra innings.
Freshman right-hander Evan Demurias (L, 1-3) sat the Panthers (19-28, 10-8) down in order in the 10th, ending the frame with a strikeout.
The first two batters for A&T in the home half flew out, but junior designated hitter Bret Mersman drew a walk. A&T coach Ben Hall made a move to pinch run sophomore Shemar Dalton, and it worked. Freshman catcher Canyon Brown sliced a single through the left side on the next pitch.
Dalton's speed got him from first to third on the play, leading to graduate infielder Alec Seaton stepping into the batter's box. The first pitch Seaton saw was a wild one, skipping away from HPU catcher Blake Sutton.
As a result, Dalton burst toward home plate, but Sutton gathered the ball and fired it to Everett Vaughan, who was covering home. Vaughan applied the tag to Dalton for the out.
An eerily similar sequence followed for the Panthers in the 11th. Demurias retired the first two batters he faced before Peyton Carr singled to center field. Cameron Lee came in to pinch run for him.
Lee went from first to third on a Charlie Klingler single through the right side. Klingler stole second to put two runners into scoring position for Adam Stuart, who slapped a double down the right field line into the corner of the stadium, scoring both runners and giving HPU a 6-4 lead.
Andrew Amato popped a ball out to center in what should have been the third out of the inning, but Noah Lea, who had just entered the game, did not squeeze the ball into his glove, and it fell to the ground allowing Stuart to score.
A&T did not go quietly in their half of the 11th, however. Seaton and Lea provided back-to-back singles to begin the frame. The runners moved into scoring position on a groundout from Brantley, bringing Hennings, the player with the highest batting average in the lineup, to the plate.
Hennings laced a ball into right center field, but a great play by Josh Deslauriers ended the threat and the game.
The Aggies struck first on Monday, plating a run in the third aided by two errors from HPU. Hennings struck out, but the ball got away from Sutton, forcing a throw down to first. It was an errant one that allowed Hennings to reach first safely and advance to second.
A wild pitch dropped from Sutton's glove, and Hennings made a break for third, but another lousy HPU throw ended up in the outfield, allowing Hennings to score on the play.
That was the first of three straight scoring frames for A&T, highlighted by RBI groundouts from Seaton and sophomore outfielder Camden Jackson.
Stuart gave HPU the lead in the seventh on an RBI single to left field. He ended his day 4-for-6 with a double and three RBI to pace the HPU offense.
