GREENSBORO – North Carolina A&T had difficulty slowing down a determined High Point University (HPU) offense on Tuesday, losing to the Panthers 25-12 in seven innings at War Memorial Stadium.
The Aggies lost to the Panthers for the second time in a week after losing 11-10 at HPU last Wednesday. It drops A&T to 12-23 overall. HPU continues its outstanding season, posting 21 hits and a 12-run second inning against A&T to improve to 26-11 overall.
The Triad Piedmont Area teams innocently traded runs in the first inning. HPU scored on an RBI sacrifice fly off junior right-handed starter Darius Robinson (L, 1-1). A&T answered in its half of the first inning. Freshman Bruce Wyche, the reigning Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) co-Rookie of the Week, scored on a wild pitch after walking and advancing to third on an HPU error.
Things turned sour for A&T from there. The Panthers started hitting baseballs out of the ballpark in the second. James Murphy hit a two-run homer. Brayden Simpson eventually hit a grand slam before Jace Kohler hit HPU's third home run of the inning, a three-run shot to give HPU an 11-1 lead. HPU ended the second inning with 12 runs on 10 hits, and the Panthers held a 13-1 advantage.
HPU posted another run in the visitor's third before the Aggies made a mini-run toward cutting into the Panthers' lead. Freshman JT Taylor singled before senior AJ Jones advanced him to second with a groundout. Freshman Savoi Edwards took advantage. He roped a single to center field to score Taylor.
In the Aggies fourth, sophomore Jason Campo led off with a double, followed by HPU starter Brody Shawn (W, 1-0), walking Wyche on five pitches. Freshman Tyler Smith then stepped to the plate and blasted the first of his two home runs on Tuesday. His first was a three-run to cut the Panthers lead to 14-5. Taylor followed with a single, ending the night for Shawn, who Cord Butler replaced.
Taylor went to third on a passed ball and eventually to third on a wild pitch with two out in the inning. Senior Kristian Amaro pushed him across with an RBI single, bringing the Aggies to within eight runs. However, the hopes of a miracle comeback took a serious blow when the Panthers posted six more runs in the visitor's fifth.
It was fueled by an RBI double, a two-run single and a two-run double, giving HPU a 20-6 lead. Wyatt Ewanowski added to HPU's lead with a grand slam in the sixth.
The Aggies offense came alive again in their sixth. Smith homered again, passing Wyche for the team lead with seven. Jones followed with a one-out double and came home on an RBI single from Edwards. A walk to Amaro and a wild pitch moved Edwards and Amaro into scoring position. Edwards came home on a passed ball, and Amaro scored on a two-out RBI single from junior Nick DiCarlo, which made it a 24-10 game in favor of HPU.
Junior Luis Gomez and Edwards added RBI singles in the ninth inning to close out the scoring for A&T. Edwards went 3-for-5 with a run scored and three RBIs. Taylor went 2-for-4 and scored twice. Kohler had five RBIs for the Panthers.
A&T hits the road this weekend, traveling to Newark, Del., to face the Delaware Blue Hens in a three-game CAA series, starting Friday at 5 p.m.
