GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T baseball team completed the sweep of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday with a 5-1 win over the Hawks at War Memorial Stadium. It marks the second straight season the Aggies have opened the year by sweeping the Hawks to start the season 3-0. The Aggies pitching staff finished a great series, holding UMES to just five hits. A&T outscored UMES 22-5 during the series.
A&T sophomore right-handed pitcher Evan Hart (W, 1-0) started the game, working five clean innings, only allowing three hits and a walk while striking out four. Hart looks to step into a larger role by being tagged as the Sunday starter this year. The Aggie offense started quickly, scoring one run in each of the first three innings.
Junior left fielder Tre Williams started a two-out rally in the first by notching a single, followed by a walk to junior catcher Canyon Brown. UMES starter Tyler Prather (L, 0-1) loaded the bases when he hit senior designated Camden Jackson with a pitch. Prather then tossed a wild pitch, allowing Williams to score.
Senior center fielder TJ sparked the Aggies second-inning offense with a single and a stolen base. Freshman second baseman JT Taylor laced a ball at the right fielder to score Ash on an RBI sacrifice fly to make the score 2-0. Prather was able to work out of the inning without any other blemishes.
In his second plate appearance, Williams caught a fastball out in front, rocketing a home run over the left field wall to make the score 3-0 in the third. A&T tallied only six hits throughout the ballgame, but that does not show how well the Aggies hit the ball.
Senior RHP Connor Blantz relieved Hart in the sixth, giving up a home run over the right-field wall to the second batter he faced to cut A&T's lead to 3-1. He worked two innings, only allowing one run while striking out four. The A&T offense got a runner in scoring position during the sixth, thanks to Shemar Dalton's second walk of the day and his stolen base. However, they could not capitalize as UMES relief pitcher Eric Elliot got out of the inning unscathed.
The Aggies did scratch across two more runs before the game's conclusion. In the seventh, Brown scored after a bases-loaded balk by UMES reliever Brandon Gomez. In the eighth inning, Williams got his third hit when he scorched another ball to left field for a double, scoring AJ Jones, who reached on a walk.
Aggies RHP Angel Ortiz (S, 1) closed the game. He battled through the eighth inning, getting out of a situation with two runners in scoring position. He recorded two strikeouts during his two innings of work. The Aggies were able to control the weekend series thanks to great work from their starting pitching. They racked up 15 innings while striking out 15 and only allowing two runs.
A&T returns to action on Tuesday when they travel to Boiling Springs, N.C., to face the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs at John Henry Moss Stadium at 4 p.m.
