GREENSBORO – Home Sweet Home.
After two weeks away from its home facility, War Memorial Stadium, the North Carolina A&T Aggies baseball team returned to The War and defeated the Radford Highlanders 8-2 on Wednesday night.
The win ends a 10-game losing streak for the Aggies, improving their record to 4-14. Radford fell to 10-9.
The Aggies' last win came at home to Marist on February 28. After losing to the Red Foxes at home on March 2, the Aggies played eight games away from their home field. But on Wednesday, A&T got a terrific start from junior right-hander Evan Hart (W, 1-1) and freshmen Tyler Smith and JT Taylor produced for the Aggies at the top of the lineup to make the homecoming pleasant.
"It's been an absolute grind," said A&T head coach Ben Hall. "When we looked at the schedule, we knew what we were up against, but credit the players for talking about the right things. They're getting together to figure out what we need to do to play our best game of baseball, to get better, and to improve.
The season is not going to stop. We've struggled here for a couple of weeks on the road, but I know what we are capable of doing, and tonight was a better reflection of what we are capable of doing."
Hart showed some of his abilities against the Highlanders. He threw 50 pitches in his four-inning appearance, striking out five and surrendering one hit. He received run support early. Smith and Taylor hit back-to-back one-out singles, setting up fellow freshman Savoi Edwards for a two-out, two-run RBI single to right field to give the Aggies an early 2-0 advantage.
The Aggies added a run in the third on a Taylor RBI sacrifice fly. But the Highlanders got a run back in the visitor's fifth. Corbin Grantham hit an RBI sac fly to center field off freshman RHP Jordan Bright, cutting A&T's lead to 3-1. Junior RHP entered the game after the sac fly and retired Jhonkeanu Perez to end the frame. A&T slowly built its lead over the sixth and seventh innings while receiving outstanding relief pitching from its bullpen.
Junior Nick DiCarlo posted an RBI single in the sixth, and Taylor had an RBI double in the seventh to give the Aggies a 5-1 lead. Taylor finished the evening 3-for-4 with four RBI and a run scored. Meanwhile, Smith went 2-for-3 and scored three times.
"When your best players play well, you're going to have a chance to win, and our best players played well today," said Hall. "It was really a team effort. JT Taylor had a great game, obviously. Tyler Smith hit the ball well. We put (freshman Bruce Wyche) at the top of the lineup. He has struggled at times, but he's still getting on base. We're still trying to find the right mix."
While the Aggies offense prospered, A&T's pitching kept Radford in check. Duke pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up only one hit and zero runs. Freshman RHP Mekai pitched a scoreless seventh, and freshman RHP Braxton Davis pitched a scoreless eighth. In the home eighth, A&T put the game away.
With junior Andrew Tinsley on third and junior Luis Gomez at first with one out, the Highlanders turned to RHP Will Rice. On the first pitch he threw, Wyche hit a groundball to short. He was thrown out, but Tinsley scored to give the Aggies a five-run lead. Rice intentionally walked Smith to face Taylor. Mistake.
Taylor completed his career night with a two-run double to right to give the Aggies an 8-1 lead going into the ninth.
Junior RHP Carter Daniels gave up a leadoff double before giving up a walk and having that compounded with a balk that allowed Noah Toole to reach third. Daniels settled in after those adventures. He struck out Granthan before Perez hit an RBI sac fly to center for the second out. Daniels then retired Hunter Keen to end the ballgame.
The Aggies secured a nice win before the start of Coastal Athletic Association conference play this weekend as the William & Mary Tribe will visit The War for a three-game series, starting on Friday at 6 p.m.
"Being at home. Not traveling. Getting to do our thing here was big," said Hall. "It was important for us to play a good game tonight to start getting ourselves in a better place going into this weekend."
