GREENSBORO — The North Carolina A&T softball team earned its first Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) win of the season on a rocket-launching walk-off home run from graduate Brenay Howard. The team won 4-3 over the Hampton Pirates in the first game of a doubleheader played at the Lady Aggies Softball Complex on Friday.
Howard crushed her third home run of the season and the 12th of her career to help the Aggies snap a 12-game losing streak. The Aggies lost Game 2, 2-0. After the doubleheader, the Aggies will head into the series finale on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a 7-22 record overall and 1-10 in CAA play. Hampton is 11-22 overall and 4-7 in league play.
In the top of the seventh in Game 1, Hampton took a 3-2 lead on a Camryn Bonner RBI single up the middle off A&T starter Sharla Kirkpatrick (W, 3-9). But A&T started the home seventh with a double from freshman Avery Evans. It led to Hampton making a change in the circle as Taryn Bennett (L, 6-3) replaced Angelina Branch.
Bennett struck out Katriel Williams for the first out of the inning before Howard stepped up. Howard took Bennett's 2-2 pitch and launched it over the left-field fence to win the walk-off. Sophomore shortstop Makayla Layton went 1-for-3 with an RBI. She earned her RBI in the third inning as Evans walked to open the frame.
A bunt single by Williams put Aggies at first and second before a sacrifice bunt from Howard moved both runners into scoring position. Avery got picked off at third on a snap throw from Hampton catcher Emily Kepple. But Layton came through with her RBI single to tie the game at 1-1. Hampton recaptured the lead on a Bonner RBI double in the fifth inning.
Freshman Jamari Moss went 2-for-2 in the game. Her sixth-inning home run tied the game at 2-2 before the game-ending fireworks. Graduate pitcher Kayla Douglas (L, 0-2) started Game 2 and went five innings, giving up only one run on five hits while striking out three. A&T managed only four hits in the pitcher's duel as Bennett (W, 7-3) started Game 2 and pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless softball while striking out seven.
A&T had its opportunities. The Aggies had runners in scoring position in the second, third, and fourth innings, with freshman Trinity Glover hitting a one-out triple in the fourth before getting stranded. Hampton finally broke through in the fifth off Douglas with a solo home run from Bonner to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. The Aggies tried to answer in their half of the fifth as Layton walked with one out in the fifth.
Sophomore catcher Camryn Caldwell moved Layton to second on a ground out, but Evans fouled out to end the A&T threat. A&T had another viable threat in the sixth inning when Howard led off with an infield single. After two consecutive strikeouts from Bennett, Emily Workman (S, 1) replaced her in the circle.
Howard stole second off Workman before Moss walked to put runners at first and second with two out. Workman then faced freshman Destiny Sims, striking her out to send the game into the seventh. Hampton gave Workman an insurance run in the seventh thanks to an RBI single from Bonner. In the home seventh, Workman put the tying run on first with one out when she hit Layton with a 0-1 pitch.
But Caldwell hit into a game-ending double play to send the series into a rubber match scheduled for 1 p.m., Saturday at the Lady Aggies Softball Complex.
