GREENSBORO – It was a special day on Saturday for the North Carolina A&T baseball program as it honored a part of its glorious past on Saturday when the 2005 team returned to War Memorial Stadium to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2005 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament and regular-season championships.
It was not so great on the diamond Saturday. The Stony Brook University (SBU) Seawolves put together two massive innings, defeating A&T 17-4 in seven innings in Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) play. The loss drops the Aggies to 9-19 overall and 5-3 in the CAA. The loss also knocks A&T back into a third-place tie with the College of Charleston.
SBU leadoff man Evan Goforth went 2-for-3 and drove in three runs to help the Seawolves improve to 13-15 overall and 2-6 in league play. The two teams will play the rubber game of the three-game series on Sunday. The start time was moved from 1 p.m. to noon on Saturday. On Saturday, the Seawolves scored nine runs over the first three innings, and the Aggies never recovered.
A&T displayed some power on Saturday, however. In the A&T fifth inning, freshman Savoi Edwards hit his first career home run, a solo shot to left center field to put the Aggies on the board for the first time. A&T added two more runs in the sixth inning once the Seawolves took right-handed starter Ty Panariello (W, 2-1) out of the game for RHP Matt Sgambati.
Freshman Tyler Smith greeted Sgambati with a solo home run to right field to cut the Seawolves lead to 9-2. Taylor's blast marked his third of the season. Sgambati ran into some more trouble when freshman JT Taylor doubled down the left field line, which was followed by an infield single from senior AJ Jones to put Aggies on first and third with one out.
After Jones' base hit, the Seawolves turned to RHP Ryan Dieguez. Dieguez started well, striking out Edwards before a passed ball allowed Taylor to score and Jones to reach second. Dieguez then unleashed a wild pitch, moving Jones to third. But A&T's threat ended a ground out by Jason Campo.
Things got worse for A&T from there. The Seawolves put together an eight-run seventh inning, where the Aggies had to use three pitchers to get through the frame. The Aggies entered the seventh trailing by 14 runs, which put them on the brink of having the game end early through the CAA's run-rule that ends games after seven of 6 ½ if a team is trailing by more than 10 runs.
A&T did add a run in the bottom of the seventh, but it would not be enough to move the game beyond the seventh. RHP Matt Murtagh (L, 0-3) got the start for the Aggies. Edwards and senior Enrique Wood had two hits apiece for A&T.
