STATESBORO, Ga. – The North Carolina A&T softball team snapped a nine-game losing streak on Saturday with an offensive outburst that saw them down Georgia Southern 11-8 during the second day of the GATA Challenge. Earlier in the day, the Aggies lost to Middle Tennessee 11-0. The Aggies are 2-10 on the season.
Senior Jai Deese homered twice and recorded four RBI. She also scored twice. Junior Alyxx Estrada went 1-for-2 with two runs scored and three RBI, and freshman Katriel Williams went 2-for-4, including a double, a triple and three RBI. The Aggies broke through after being one-hit in three straight games. A&T had also gone scoreless for 26 consecutive innings before a six-run outburst in the second inning versus GSU.
Freshman Megan Ellis, who went 2-for-2 against the Eagles, started the fun with a single. Junior Sharla Kirkpatrick came in to pinch run for Ellis before Deese hit the first of two homers on the day to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead. The rally continued as freshman Sierra Baldwin singled through the left side, and Jocelyn Bennett reached on an error that allowed Baldwin to advance to third.
Senior Moriah Terry entered the game for Bennett as a pinch runner and stole second. Baldwin came home on the throwing error to second, giving A&T a 3-0 advantage. Terry went to third on the play. Then, sophomore Joey Barkhimer walked and stole second. But Terry was thrown out trying to go home on a Kendall Macauley grounder to shortstop. However, the throw home did allow Macauley to reach second and Barkhimer to advance to third.
It set up Estrada's two-run single through the left side, scoring Barkhimer and Macauley for a 6-0 lead. Williams closed out the second-inning scoring with a double to right field to score Estrada. Dezianna Patmon, who walked before Williams' at-bat, was thrown out trying to go home to end the inning.
GSU rallied, however. They posted two runs in their half of the second. An Olivia Creamer RBI triple cut A&T's lead to 6-3 before Katie Perkins got the Eagles to within one with a two-run single that scored Creamer and Kinley Stewart, who reached on a walk. A&T increased its lead in the fourth, however.
Barkhimer opened the fourth inning by walking. After a Macauley strikeout, Estrada walked to put runners on first and second. Patmon then struck out for the second out in the inning, but Estrada and Barkhimer moved to third on a failed pickoff attempt by GSU pitcher Morgan Kendrick. Williams's two-out, two-run RBI triple gave the Aggies an 8-5 lead before a Kiara Richards strikeout ended the inning.
A&T added a run in the fifth when Estrada walked with the bases loaded. The Eagles answered in their half of the fifth with an RBI single from Creamer to cut A&T's lead to 9-6. In the Aggies sixth, Deese hit her second blast of the game, a two-run shot to left that scored Ellis, who reached on a single. The Eagles answer was a two-run homer by Dejah Mills, cutting the Aggies lead to 11-8.
The Aggies went quietly in the visitor's seventh. Creamer led off the home seventh with a walk. A&T pitcher Kayla Douglas struck out Kinley Stewart for the first out. Perkins hit into a fielder's choice that forced out Creamer for out No. 2. Brooke Kell ended the game on a ground out as Barkhimer took the win in the circle to improve to 1-0 on the season. Douglas secured the save, and Kastin Belogorska (0-1) took the loss for GSU.
Against Middle Tennessee, Patmon had the Aggies lone hit. Pitcher S'Nyiah Stinson lost, and Paige Connors (4-1) won for the Blue Raiders.
