GREENSBORO – The North Carolina A&T baseball team needed senior right-hander Diego Barrett (S, 1) to pitch brilliantly on Friday. He fulfilled that need.
Barrett entered the game with the Aggies holding a slim one-run lead. He helped the Aggies maintain that one-run lead over three innings to lead A&T to an 8-7 win over the Campbell Fighting Camels in a Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) contest at War Memorial Stadium.
In addition, with two games to play on Saturday, the Aggies did not have to turn to senior right-handed closer Jacob Halford. Campbell and A&T will continue to jockey for position on Saturday when they play an 11 a.m. doubleheader from The War.
Barrett's pitching and a five-run fifth inning helped the Aggies improve to 15-29 overall and 9-10 in the CAA. Campbell hit four home runs on Friday, but the Camels still dropped to 18-26 overall and 9-10 in conference play. The two teams are tied for sixth place in the conference. The top six teams in the CAA qualify for a berth in the conference tournament.
On Saturday, the Camels compiled seven runs on 11 hits over the game's first 4 ½ innings to take a 7-3 lead as the Aggies headed into the home fifth inning. Campbell's right-handed starter Mason Smith (L, 2-5) opened the frame by striking out sophomore Jason Campo before walking freshman Bruce Wyche on an 0-1 pitch. Freshman Tyler Smith walked, and freshman JT Taylor followed with a single to left field to score Wyche, cutting the Camels lead to 7-4.
Junior Andrew Tinsley loaded the bases with a single before freshman Savoi Edwards ripped a two-run single through the right side of the infield to bring the Aggies to within one. The Aggies loaded the bases again when senior Enrique Wood was hit with a 1-0 pitch. It led to junior Nick DiCarlo's single to right to score Tinsley, tying the game 7-7.
After DiCarlo's single, the Camels replaced Smith with RHP Peyton Brown. Brown walked senior Kristian Amaro to force in the go-ahead run, giving the Aggies an 8-7 lead. Campo hit into a double play to end the frame.
"We put in play," said A&T head coach Ben Hall about the Aggie fifth. "You preach it all the time. A strikeout doesn't have to be defended. You have to keep competing with two strikes. We have a two-strike plan. At times, we haven't been great with it, but today, some of our hits were two-strike hits. That's what it means to keep competing to put it in play. If you put in play, you will find holes, and that keeps giving you opportunities to score."
Freshman RHP Taili Thompson (W, 2-2) took to the bump in the Campbell sixth for the Aggies. Despite giving up a walk and throwing a wild pitch, Thompson kept the Camels off the board, getting Charlie Meglio to fly out to left to end the inning. A&T turned to Barrett in the seventh, and he retired the Camels in order.
Campbell's Joe Simpson secured the Camels hit between the visitors' sixth and ninth innings with a two-out single in the eighth. But he struck out Dalen Thompson to end the threat. Barrett then struck out the side to secure the win for A&T. Barrett pitched three scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out five. A&T pitching struck out 12 Camels after right-handed starter Angel Ortiz posted seven strikeouts over 4.2 innings.
"I'm proud of Diego," said Hall. "His growth has been awesome since last year; seeing him finish that game was great. We talked about it and decided that once he goes in, we were going to let him finish the game and make sure we are not using two of our better guys on the same day if we can. He answered the call."
Simpson hit a two-run homer in the second inning. The Camels hit three home runs in the fourth, with Andrew Schuldt and Jonah Oster hitting solo home runs and Simpson hitting another two-run blast. All four of Campbell's home runs went to left field.
Tinsley homered for the Aggies in the third, a three-run explosion to left field. Tinsley went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Smith walked four times and scored twice for A&T.
"We talked about it prior to the weekend. They can hit. And they can hit the home run," said Hall. "We can't exacerbate it by giving free bases and putting guys on base. We only had two walks today. That was the difference in the game."
