GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T baseball completed an offense-filled weekend on Sunday with a 13-7 Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) win over William & Mary at War Memorial Stadium thanks to a six-run seventh inning.
The Aggies scored 37 runs over the weekend to win the series 2-1 and improve to 6-15 overall and 2-1 in conference play. A&T batted .318 for the weekend and five home runs, including three by freshman Bruce Wyche on Sunday. He had a home run in each of his first three at-bats. Sophomore designated hitter Jason Campo went 3-for-4 with three RBIs.
A&T took a 7-1 lead in the fourth inning as Enrique Wood doubled to left field to start the frame against W&M left-handed starter Ryan Feczko. A sacrifice bunt by junior Nick DiCarlo moved Wood to third before the Aggies put on a squeeze bunt by junior catcher Luis Gomez to score Wood. Everything else for the Aggies came with some two-out clutch hitting in the inning as the Tribe replaced Feczko with RHP Daniel Lingle.
Wyche welcomed Lingle by hitting his third consecutive home run before freshman Tyler Smith singled. Freshman JT Taylor walked, and senior AJ Jones reached on an error to load the bases. Campo delivered with a two-run RBI single to score Smith and Taylor. The Tribe turned to LHP Chad Yates (L, 0-4) on the mound. Campo attempted to steal against Yates, leading to a throwing error that completed A&T's five-run fourth.
The Tribe rallied to tie the game. W&M scored three runs in the fifth, thanks partly to a two-run double from Derek Holmes. In the sixth, the Tribe scored three more runs to make it a 7-7 ballgame on a three-run home run from Ben Parker.
But the Aggies put the game away in the seventh. Yates opened the inning by walking Jones. Jones stole second, leading to Campo's RBI single to give the Aggies the lead. RHP Zach Boyd replaced Yates and helped Campo reach second on a wild pitch. Freshman Savoi Edwards reached on an error, moving Campo to third before Wood walked to load the bases with no outs.
DiCarlo delivered a significant blow to the Tribe with a two-run RBI double to right field for a 10-7 lead. Wood later scored on a fielder's choice before an intentional walk to Wyche loaded the bases again for W&M relief LHP Tom Bourque.
Borque did not get off to a great start, hitting Smith with a 3-1 pitch to force in another run. Borque's strikeout of Taylor was the first out of the inning before Jones hit an RBI sacrifice fly to right to score Gomez, who reached on a fielder's choice from third base to give the Aggies a 13-7 lead. A Campo groundout finally ended the inning.
A&T RHP Diego Barrett (W, 1-0) set down W&M in order in the eighth inning. Barrett moved to the eighth and retired the first two batters he faced before giving up a single to Holmes. But Barrett struck out Lucas Carmichael to end the game. Barrett relieved starting RHP Gavin Sentell in the fifth inning and pitched 4.2 innings, striking out four and walking two.
Parker led W&M by going 2-for-5 with three RBIs as the Tribe dropped to 7-17 overall and 1-2 in league play. The Aggies travel to Rock Hill, SC, for a midweek game against former Big South Conference foe Winthrop on Tuesday, March 25, at 6 p.m. They begin a three-game CAA weekend series at UNC Wilmington on Friday, March 28 at 6 p.m.
