The Norfolk State baseball team defeated North Carolina A&T 9-5 on Friday in the second round of the 2007 MEAC Baseball Tournament at the Marty L. Miller Field in Norfolk, Va.
The Spartans (25-23) will take on top-seeded Bethune-Cookman in a winner’s bracket game at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The Aggies (25-30) will play an elimination game against the winner of the Delaware State vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore in a contest set for Saturday morning at 10 a.m.
Ernie Banks drove in the first two runs of the game on his single to center field, scoring Charles LaLane, who walked to lead off the inning and Moriba George, who also singled to center.
North Carolina A&T answered in the bottom of the first inning when MEAC Player of the Year Charlie Gamble blasted a two-run homer to left center to tie the game at 2-2.
But the Spartans answered in the second thanks to LaLane’s hot bat. With one out and two runners on, LaLane hit an outfield single and advanced on the throw to score Jerrod Farley and Billy Canady putting NSU up 4-2.
De’Meece Williams got a crucial out in the bottom of the third when he struck out Jeremy Jones looking. Jones was ahead 3-2 in the count and thought he saw ball four when Williams delivered a waist-high curve ball. Jones tossed his bat and started heading to first when the home plate umpire rung him up for the third out of the inning.
In the fifth inning, Lyall Foran hit a lead-off single to left field and scored on Farley’s triple to right center. Farley later scored on an error by Gamble and the Spartans went up 7-2.
Williams rallied behind his team’s defense in the fifth and sixth innings, keeping the Aggies from crossing home plate.
Rocco Savage, the only Spartan without a hit coming into the game, doubled to the right center field wall in the top of the seventh and picked up and RBI when Banks scored on the play. The Spartans increased their lead to 9-2 with John Boyd’s single through the left side to score Savage.
Williams gave the Spartans a scare in the seventh inning when he got right fielder Joe McIntyre and third baseman Nelson Santos to fly out to left field, but then walked the bases loaded. But second baseman Joe Wade reached on a fielder’s choice and George got the force out at second.
The Aggies did get three runs in the bottom of the eighth to come within 9-5, but Spartan reliever Joey Seal was lights out in the bottom of the ninth to earn his fourth save of the season.
Williams improved 5-3 on the season with the win. He allowed five runs, three earned, on five hits, walked four, and struck out one in seven innings. Seal threw two innings, yielding two hits and striking out one batter. Tim Johnson fell to 4-4 after giving up five earned runs on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts in two innings.
LaLane and Banks each had two hits and two RBI and every Spartan had a hit. For the Aggies, Gamble was 1-for-5 a home run and three RBI and center fielder C.J. Beatty was 2-for-3 with a walk.