ELON, NC – Mother Nature fooled North Carolina A&T this week. With inclement weather in the forecast, A&T decided to cancel its season-opening softball tournament held at the Lady Aggies Softball Complex.
But all was not lost. The A&T softball team found a way to play and, in the process, won its first game of the young 2023 season with a 10-8 win over rival North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in eight innings at the Elon Softball Classic hosted by Elon at Hunt Softball Park on Friday. A&T lost 5-0 earlier in the day to Winthrop to split Opening Day.
Elon invited A&T to the Elon Classic on Thursday. The Aggies will play one more game at Hunt Softball Park this weekend with a 5 p.m. Saturday start against Morgan State.
Freshman Katriel Williams led the Aggies against the Eagles by going 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI. Graduate Jocelyn Bennett added a double and four RBI. Jai Deese scored three times and went 2-for-4.
Preseason Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) preseason watch list standout Dezianna Patmon had a 2-for-4 evening with an RBI and a run scored, including a home run. The win was historic for Aggies first-year coach Diego Ibarra. The interim head coach earned his first collegiate win.
Ibarra appeared headed toward his first win much earlier than the eighth inning as the Aggies added a run in the sixth to take an 8-6 lead. A&T held that lead going into the home half of the seventh. But the Eagles put the pressure on the Aggies as Imara Harrell led off the NCCU seventh with a single.
But Joey Barkhimer, the Aggies pitcher of record, got pinch-hitter Hailey Batista to fly out to right field for the inning's first out. However, Harrell moved into scoring position before Jaden Davis earned an infield to put runners at first and third. Morgan Green then put the Eagles within one by hitting into a fielder's choice that allowed Green to reach, Davis to reach third and Harrell to score.
NCCU loaded the bases after Makiya Graves reached on an infield single, and Ivory Jones followed with a walk to force home Davis to tie the game at 8. Sophomore Amaya Kearse replaced Barkhimer in the circle with the go-ahead run at third. Kearse got Jaylah Barr to hit into a force play that allowed the Aggies to eliminate Green on the base paths as she tried to score. Barkhimer struck out Takia Nichols to end the inning, forcing extra innings.
By predetermined rules, the Aggie runner who made the last out in the previous was placed on second to start extra innings. Therefore, Sierra Baldwin went to second but was caught stealing for the first out. Kearse grounded out for the second out in the inning before Patmon blasted a shot over the left field fence to give the Aggies a 9-8 lead.
Pinch-hitter Makayla Layton kept the inning going by reaching on an error and later moving to second on a stolen base. That set up Williams' RBI single through the left side to give the Aggies a 10-8 lead going into the Eagles eighth.
The Eagles placed pinch runner D'Nahjah Harrell on second for Nichols. But Kearse got Maegan Garrison to fly out and Imara Harrell to strike out for the first two outs of the inning. Then, after Kearse hit Batista with a 2-1 pitch, Davis flew out to right to give the Aggies win No. 1 of 2023.
Kearse (1-0) earned the win for A&T, and Ashanti Eubanks (0-1) took the loss. Jones and Barr had three RBI apiece for the Eagles.
In A&T's first game, KaDedra Temple had a two-run RBI double, and Ella McGilliard had a two-run RBI single to contribute to a four-run fourth that broke the game open. Kayla Douglas took the loss in the circle for A&T. Winthrop's Reese Basinger (1-0) pitched a complete-game three-hitter.
