GREENSBORO – With Opening Day behind them, the North Carolina A&T baseball team showcased its offensive prowess and depth coming out of the bullpen in a 12-2 win over the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
The Aggies improved to 2-0 on the young season behind a three-RBI effort from junior catcher Canyon Brown. One day after coming up with the game-winning three-run RBI double that led the Aggies to an Opening Day 5-2 win over the Hawks, senior center fielder TJ Ash added two more RBI to his total. Meanwhile, junior third baseman AJ Jones scored three times on Saturday.
"It's not Opening Day, and I think you saw them much more relaxed and in-flow team today," said A&T head coach Ben Hall. "What we've been seeing in preseason came out a little bit offensively today."
The Aggies started scoring early. Jones hit a one-out single to right field. A&T's leading hitter a year ago, Tre Williams, then grounded to Quentin Smith at third. Smith tried to force out Jones as the lead runner going to second, but his throw went wide left, allowing Jones to reach third while Williams reached on a fielder's choice.
Brown then stepped up and walloped his first home run of the season to give the Aggies a 3-0 lead. It was Brown's 13th career home run. But the Hawks decided to play a little long ball in the visitor's second. After a double from Ryan Davis, Derek Blackmore belted a two-run homer off A&T right-handed starter Diego Barrett (W, 1-0) to bring the Hawks to within one.
The Aggies took over from there as they answered the Hawks second-inning rally with one-run home second as freshman second baseman JT Taylor reached second on a two-out error before Jones singled him home with a groundball to center. Jones, however, was thrown out trying to stretch the single into an extra-base hit.
A six-run fourth inning followed, all but putting the Hawks away. An RBI single by Ash scored graduate Chet Sikes after Sikes doubled to open the frame. After Ash stole second, senior outfielder Michael Logan singled to put Aggies on the corners. Junior shortstop Enrique Wood's RBI sacrifice fly to center scored Ash to give the Aggies a 6-2 advantage.
The sac fly ended the outing of Justin Spencer (L, 0-1) as Gary Hallmen Jr. entered the game, walked Taylor, and hit Jones with a pitch to load the bases. Hallmen then unleashed two wild pitches that first allowed Logan to score and later allowed Taylor to score, putting the Aggies ahead 8-2.
Hallmen did strikeout Brown before walking Tatsunori Negishi to load the bases again. UMES replaced Hallmen with Charles Benard, and he walked Sikes to force in a run as Jones scored. He also walked Ash, forcing in another run as Wiliams scored to complete the six-run inning. A&T added on two more runs in the seventh.
"We talked with some of the hitters because they were getting a little pull-happy yesterday, a little jumpy in their swings," said Hall. "I thought the guys prepared the right way at batting practice, and you really saw it. A bunch of guys went (opposite field). Canon went oppo for his home run to start the scoring. We just had sharper swings today."
