EAST GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T responded on Saturday.
The Aggies responded when they went down three runs early. They responded when the William & Mary Tribe posted a four-run inning to rally from a three-run deficit. And they certainly responded when first baseman Anthony Hennings launched a game-winning solo home run to left field in the eighth inning to propel the Aggies to an 8-7 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) baseball win at War Memorial Stadium.
The victory clinches the three-game series win after A&T's 2-1 triumph on Friday. A&T improves to 16-19 on the season and 8-10 in the conference as they move to within 1 ½ games of the sixth and final spot allotted to CAA teams trying to qualify for the conference tournament.
William & Mary and Delaware are tied for fifth place as the Tribe dropped to 24-16 overall and 9-8 in league play. A&T and W&M will play the series finale at 1 p.m., Sunday, from War Memorial Stadium.
Hennings added to a special evening for Aggies baseball by hitting his second home run of the season. Before the game, the Aggies unveiled their 1974 and 1993 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) championship banners. A&T now has all four MEAC championship banners showcased in right field.
In addition, the program celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 1993 team winning the MEAC tournament title, as approximately 25 1993 team members returned home to mark the occasion. The events created a backdrop where the Aggies played in front of their largest and most boisterous crowd of the season at War Memorial.
"We had a great crowd in the ballpark today," said A&T head coach Ben Hall. "It felt good to have The War rocking. And for our guys to not only enjoy the fact they had a good crowd but to also respond by going out and playing good baseball in the moment was huge."
Hennings sent the crowd into a frenzy as he led off the Aggies eighth by taking right-hander Cory Wall's (L, 4-3) 1-1 pitch on a journey into the left-field trees to break the 7-7 tie.
The Aggies continued to rally in the inning as center fielder TJ Ash doubled and left fielder Michael Logan walked to put two runners on with no outs. But Wall got shortstop Devon Rodriguez to pop up, right fielder Shemar Dalton hit a slow dribbler back to the mound and third baseman Cort Maynard struck out swinging to send the game into the ninth.
RHP Trent Simmons (W, 2-1), who entered the game in the sixth inning, gave up a one-out single before putting the tying run at second with a wild pitch. But he settled in and got catcher Nate Gorason to line out to short before striking out Tank Yaghoubi to end the game. Simmons pitched four scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out five.
"He struggled early in the season," said Hall about the junior out of Raleigh, N.C. "He is a testament to what it means to keep working. The season is long. You cannot have success early, but be great down the stretch by working hard to get better. He found some things to fix and has been lights out for us recently, throwing a ton of strikes. He was definitely lights out today."
A&T starter and RHP Xavier Meachem also had five strikeouts on Saturday in 4.2 innings pitched. He ran into some trouble in the first inning, surrendering a solo home run to Ben Williamson before Jerry Barnes III hit his second home run of the series, a two-run shot to right for a 3-0 W&M lead.
But Meachem's teammates had a response in the third, putting together a five-run, six-hit frame that included a three-run triple from designated hitter Camden Jackson to give the Aggies a 5-3 advantage. A&T added a run in the fourth thanks to an RBI single from Dalton. But the Tribe had a few answers of its own.
W&M posted a four-run fifth as Barnes' RBI double chased Meachem from the game and brought the Tribe to within one run at 6-5. Joe Delossanto tied the game with an RBI triple off Aggies RHP Connor Blantz before Corey Adams gave the Tribe a 7-6 lead with an RBI single. But once again, the Aggies had a response before Hennings' enormous response.
In the Aggies fifth, second baseman Tre Williams singled up the middle and moved to third on a throwing error and a groundout. Ash sent him home on an RBI sacrifice fly to center to tie the game at 7.
"I'm really proud of the team. That's two games in a row where we played on guts," Hall said. "We collected ourselves as a team this week to get back to fighting and competing and making sure that every at-bat counts. We can win in different ways. We've got to compete in everything we do. Don't get caught up in the ups and downs of what's going on. You could tell we had that mentality today."
Logan contributed to the Aggies win by going 2-for-3 and scoring twice. Dalton went 2-for-5 with two RBI.
