GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T and Marist engaged in a back-and-forth in their rubber match at War Memorial Stadium on Sunday before the Red Foxes got an RBI single in the visitor's 10th inning to defeat the Aggies 12-11 in non-conference baseball play.
Marist walked away with the series victory by winning consecutive games by scoring a combined 25 runs. Junior Andrew Tinsley went 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Freshman Tyler Smith scored twice and hit his second home run of the season, but the Aggies still fell to 3-6 overall. Meanwhile, the Red Foxes picked up their first two wins of the season over the past two days, improving to 2-8.
In the seesaw affair, the Red Foxes struck first, scoring a run in the top of the first inning before the Aggies retaliated in the home team's first inning as senior AJ Jones produced a two-run RBI single ahead of senior Kristian Amaro's two-run single, giving the Aggies a 4-1 lead.
Marist scored two runs in the second, and Brady Steinert had an RBI double in the third inning to tie the game at 4-4 heading into A&T's home half of the third. Marist right-handed reliever Ryan VanDeWater issued a two-out walk to Amaro before hitting senior Enrique Wood with a 2-2 pitch to put Aggies at first and second.
Tinsley then singled to left field, scoring Amaro. A fumbling of the ball in left field also allowed Wood to score, giving the Aggies a 6-4 lead. Marist's answer to A&T's latest rally came in a big way. The Red Foxes scored seven runs in the visitor's fourth, aided by five hits, a walk, a hit batsman and a throwing.
The Red Foxes' fourth inning put them ahead 11-6. But A&T worked its way back into the game methodically.
It started with a Wood double. When Marist left fielder Nathan Lincoln lost Tinsley's flyball in the sun; the Aggies had runners on second and third with no outs. Junior Nick DiCarlo brought both men home with an RBI double that he tried to stretch into a triple but was thrown out at third.
It was unfortunate since the next pitch thrown in the game landed over the right-field wall thanks to Smith's home run that cut the Red Foxes' lead to 11-9. RHP Jake Burt struck out the next two Aggies he faced to end the sixth.
A&T tied the game in the eighth inning with a single by Tinsley, which was complemented by walks administered to DiCarlo and Smith loaded the bases with one out against Marist RHP Ethan Marzo. Marzo followed those two walks by hitting freshman Bruce Wyche with a 2-2 pitch, forcing in a run to bring the Aggies to within one.
Marist replaced Marzo on the mound with RHP Caleb Kempler (W, 1-1), who fell victim to a passed ball that allowed DiCarlo to score to tie the game at 11-11. The inning ended, however, with a pop-out and a strikeout.
In the ninth, Marist got a runner on thanks to an error. A&T RHP Grayson King (L, 0-1) hit Lincoln with a 1-2 pitch before striking out Scott Esposito and Steinert to end the threat. The Aggies went in order in their ninth, leading to extra innings.
Luke Monico earned a one-out hit off King in the ninth before moving to second on a wild pitch. A&T recorded the second out of the inning on AJ Brotz's fly out to center before Lewis Rodriguez hit his game-winning RBI single to left center, scoring Monico.
In A&T's 10th, Smith reached on an error with two outs, but Kempler got Wyche to fly out to end the game.
Smith had a big weekend, going 5-for-13 (.385) with three runs scored, a double, a home run and three RBIs. Jones contributed by going 5-for-13 with a home run and four RBIs.
The Aggies have a midweek game at 11th-ranked Duke before starting a three-game series with Jacksonville University on Friday, March 7, and ending Sunday, March 9.
