EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T made one last ninth-inning effort to complete the sweep it sought on Sunday but came up short in a 5-3 loss to the Hofstra Pride in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) baseball action on Sunday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium. A&T did take two out of three games from the Pride to enter this week 12-12 overall and 5-4 in the CAA. In avoiding the sweep, the Pride improved to 8-15 overall and 3-6 in conference play.
The Aggies start a three-game CAA series at UNC Wilmington on Friday, March 31. The Seahawks are tied for second in the conference at 7-2.
A&T compiled 23 hits and 19 runs over the first two games against the Pride. But the A&T bats failed to fire in the same way on Sunday. Hofstra starting right-handed pitcher Brad Camarda (W, 1-1) pitched seven solid innings, striking out four Aggies, giving up four hits, and not surrendering a walk.
Camarda had six scoreless innings to his credit heading into the home half of the seventh. As a result, the Aggies trailed 5-0 before their bats came alive. Third baseman Cort Maynard singled through the left side before designated hitter Camden Jackson groundball into the right field corner.
The ball stayed there by itself long enough for Jackson to leg out an RBI triple to get A&T on the board. Then, catcher Canyon Brown hit an RBI sacrifice fly to center to score Jackson, cutting the Pride's lead to 5-2. Camarrda retired the next two batters to end the Aggies seventh.
It remained 5-2 going into the Aggies ninth when Jackson recorded his second consecutive triple to put a runner on with one out. Hofstra RHP and reliever Michael O'Hanlon followed by plunking Brown with a 1-0 pitch to bring the game's tying run to the plate in A&T's leading hitter Tre Williams.
Williams hit an RBI sac fly to left field to score Jackson, cutting the Hofstra lead to two. But the sac fly left the Aggies with two outs as left fielder Cameran Brantley stepped to the plate representing the tying run. Brantley battled with O'Hanlon (S, 4) for nine pitches before striking out to end the game.
"I give our team credit, and we've done it all year long, but we battled back today," said A&T head coach Ben Hall. "We didn't quit. We just came up a hit or two short there in the end. Obviously, you want to do more early in the game. Mimic what they do and find a run here and there, and it's a different ballgame. But they were the better team today. So you tip your cap, pack it up and try to get ready for the new week."
RHP Jaheim Brown (L, 1-2) got the start for A&T and pitched five innings, surrendering six hits, four earned runs, two walks and striking out three. An error in the second inning led to one of the two runs scored against Jaheim Brown during the frame.
Despite facing an 0-2 count, Kevin Bruggeman hit a two-run RBI double down the left field line to give the Pride a 4-0 lead. An RBI sac fly in the fifth closed out the Pride's scoring.
"I didn't think Jah pitched poorly," said Hall. "We had a defensive mistake in one inning, and it led to a couple of runs. He made one bad pitch with two strikes, but I thought he did fine. We didn't make adjustments at the plate, but you have to give their guy credit; he was mixing it up in the zone. He threw pitches for strikes and kept us off balance."
Williams and Jackson kept their respective hitting streaks live. Both men have hit safely in six straight games. Bruggeman went 2-for-4 with three RBI for the Pride. The Aggies welcome the Davidson Wildcats to War Memorial for a midweek game on Tuesday, starting at 6 p.m., before traveling to Wilmington, NC.
