GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T and Monmouth had to play a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) baseball doubleheader on Saturday because of the rain pouring down throughout the Triad on Friday.
As a result, the two teams stuffed two excellent games into a Saturday evening at War Memorial Stadium, where the Aggies came out victorious in both. The Aggies used a walk-off RBI single from junior Andrew Tinsley to win Game 2, 9-8. In the doubleheader opener, the Aggies held off a Monmouth rally to win 4-3.
A&T's doubleheader sweep improves A&T to 12-21 overall. The Aggies move into a three-way tie for second place in the CAA standings with a 7-4 mark. Monmouth dropped to 16-19 overall and 4-7 in league play.
Game 2 featured an intense back-and-forth between the Aggies and the Hawks to open the game. The Hawks scored four runs in the first before A&T responded with six runs in the home first. Monmouth tied the game 6-6 with two more runs in the visitor's second before A&T took the lead on a Nick DiCarlo RBI single.
Monmouth tied the game again in its third when Chris Walsh scored on a groundout. A&T senior right-handed reliever Diego Barrett and Monmouth RHP Kevin Opanel (L, 2-3) settled things down after the visitor's third. Barrett pitched six innings of relief, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out six. Opanel went 7 2/3 innings, striking out nine.
Monmouth took the lead against Barett with an RBI single from Casey Caufield in the Hawks sixth inning. The Hawks maintained that lead into the ninth inning. The Aggies replaced Barrett with RHP Taili Thompson (W, 1-0) to open the visitor's ninth. Thompson retired the Hawks in order to keep the Aggies within one heading into their ninth.
Freshman Bruce Wyche led off the frame with a single before freshman JT Taylor walked with one out to put Aggies on first and second. Freshman Savoi Edwards loaded the bases with a single, leading to Monmouth replacing Opanel with RHP Derek Benzinger. Benzinger's first pitch hit senior Kristian Amaro, leading to Wych tying the game 8-8. Tinsley followed with his walk-off RBI single, scoring Taylor to complete the doubleheader sweep.
Wyche went 2-for-4 in the second game, including a home run to lead off the Aggies first. Tinsley and DiCarlo had two hits apiece. Chris Walsh led the Hawks with a 3-for-4 Game 2, including him scoring twice.
Tyler Smith had two base hits and three RBIs in Game 1. Smith's RBI single in the A&T third gave the Aggies a 1-0 lead. The Aggies added to their lead in the fourth thanks to a two-out rally. With senior Enrique Wood on first and Amaro on second, sophomore Jason Campo hit an RBI single to right center to score Amaro.
LHP Tommy Kent (L, 1-6) followed by hitting Wyche with a 1-0 pitch to load the bases. Smith came through again for the Aggies with a two-run single through the left side to give the Aggies a 4-0 lead.
A&T's RHP Angel Ortiz (W, 5-2) was superb through the first seven innings. Ortiz gave up only three hits through the first seven innings and had a shutout going into the eighth. But an RBI sacrifice fly and an RBI single off Ortiz got the Hawks to within two runs, 4-2. The Aggies turned to standout junior reliever Jacob Halford (S, 4).
Halford gave up an RBI double to Nick Lovarco, bringing Monmouth to within one. Halford struck out Wyatt Hunt to end the threat.
Things got dicey in the visitor's ninth as Halford surrendered a walk to Kenny Noe and a single to Brendan Buecker before both runners moved into scoring position on a sac bunt from Harry Padden. But as he has all season, Halford came through for the Aggies in a clutch relief situation, striking out Caufield and getting Jay Bant to ground out to secure the win for A&T.
Padden went 2-for-4 for the Aggies. The two teams will conclude the series Sunday afternoon at 1 from The War.
