GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T has a lot of players who have played a lot of baseball, and with the game on the line Saturday, those players came through for the Aggies in a 5-2 Opening Day win over the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) at War Memorial Stadium.
"I definitely think we have grown offensively, for sure," said North Carolina A&T head coach Ben Hall at the season's outset. Hall, entering his 10th season with the Aggies, added: "Just watching the veteran maturity, the older hitters, you got guys who have been in the program three, four years. We returned all our best hitters from last year. So, you started to see that in our inner squads, where we can be more dynamic and hit the ball over the fence and get extra-base hits."
UMES had a gauntlet of A&T veteran hitters to face in the home eighth inning, with the score tied at 2-2 on Saturday. The Hawks got past veteran hitters in junior Tre Wiliams, who batted .316 last season as he flew out to right field. But veteran hitter Canyon Brown, entering his third year in the program, walked. Senior Camden Jackson, who played in the HBCU Swingman Classic over the summer, reached base when UMES reliever Cade Williams (L, 0-1) hit him with a pitch to put runners on first and second.
Chet Sikes, who has been playing collegiate baseball since 2020, loaded the bases with a single to right before four-year starter TJ Ash hit a base-clearing three-run RBI double to left field to give the Aggies a 5-2 lead. Senior Michael Logan popped out to third, and senior Devon Rodriguez struck out to end the inning.
The Aggies also have a veteran pitching staff. Senior right-hander Jake Delisi (W, 1-0) entered the game in the seventh inning during a UMES rally. Trailing 2-0, UMES loaded the bases with one out after junior reliever Trent Simmons hit Doyle McNew with a pitch, surrendered a single to Ulysses Luciano, and walked Jason Brown.
UMES greeted Delisi with a two-run single to left, scoring McNew and Luciano to tie the game at 2-2. But Delisi retired the Hawks in order in the eighth before the Aggies big three-run inning in the eighth. In the ninth, McNew led off the inning with an infield single before being replaced by pinch runner Carter Rieben.
But Delisi settled in by getting Ryan Davis to pop out before getting Luciano to hit into a force play. Luciano reached on the fielder's choice, but Rieben was eliminated from the base paths. Jason Brown walked to put the tying run at the plate in Zach Garcia. But Garcia grounded out to the pitcher to end the game.
Freshman JT Taylor led the Aggies by going 2-for-3 with a run scored. Riley Homer and McNew had two hits apiece for the Hawks. Game 2 of the series is Saturday at 2 p.m. from War Memorial Stadium.
