HEMPSTEAD, NY – For the second straight game of the North Carolina A&T Aggies at Hofstra Pride three-game Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) baseball series, the Pride pulled away late with a big inning. Hofstra won Game 2, 14-4, behind nine extra-base hits.
A&T dropped to 21-21 overall and 5-12 in CAA action. The Aggies will try to avoid the sweep Sunday afternoon when the two teams play Game 3 at noon. Hofstra hit three home runs and improved to 16-27 overall and 7-10 in league play.
A&T tried to overcome Friday's gut-wrenching loss after the two teams squared off in a back-and-forth contest. The Aggies looked to respond with junior right-handed starter Angel Ortiz (L, 2-3) taking the mound. He got off to a good start, picking up two strikeouts in the first inning.
During the second inning, he surrendered four hits and three runs. Will Kennedy's RBI triple and Michael Florides's RBI double highlighted the inning for the Pride. The Aggie offense could not muster a base runner in the first two innings but caught fire in the third. Junior infielder Enrique Wood reached on an error with one out, and senior infielder Devon Rodriguez received a walk from right-handed Hofstra started Carlos Martinez (W, 3-4) to extend the inning with two outs.
Graduate first baseman Tatsunori Negishi, a consistent performer throughout the year, once again stepped up. His scorching single into left field scored Wood and advanced Rodriguez to third. Rodriguez came home on a wild pitch. Negishi went to third on another wild pitch, setting up senior infielder Tre Williams's RBI single to score Negishi and level the score at 3-3.
Ortiz completed his outing after the fourth inning, in which he surrendered another run after a leadoff triple from Dylan Palmer led to an RBI sacrifice fly from Santino Rosso. He was able to minimize the Hofstra threat to keep the Aggies within striking distance. However, the Aggie bullpen gave up six runs during the Hofstra fifth inning, blowing the game open. Home runs by Alex McCoy and Penn Sealey assisted in giving Hofstra a 10-3 lead after the inning.
Senior RHP Jake Delisi pitched a clean sixth inning, striking out a batter during the frame. The Pride added another run in the home seventh on a Dom Camera RBI single. The Aggie offense got nothing else going until it scored in the visitor's eighth.
Wood walked before stealing second base and advancing to third on a groundout. He eventually scored after Negishi reached on an error, cutting Hofstra's lead to 11-4. Hofstra scored more runs in the bottom half of the inning after stringing together five more hits. Hofstra recorded 20 hits on the day, with four Pride players posting three hits.
Junior catcher Canyon Brown led the Aggies with two hits.
