Joe McIntyre went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and four RBIs to lead the Aggies to the 10-7 victory over the Spartans on Wednesday in the third annual Gate City Classic played at NewBridge Bank Park, home of the city’s minor league baseball team the Greensboro Grasshoppers.

C.J. Beatty added two hits and two RBIs and Jeremy Jones hit his sixth home run of the season and the 22nd of his career. The Aggies had lost eight straight to the Spartans.

“This is a big win for us because we’ve had a rough couple of games lately, so we needed a confidence booster going into a big series this weekend,’’ said head coach Keith Shumate about the Aggies three-game weekend series against perennial MEAC power Bethune-Cookman. “I thought we got some decent pitching tonight and we hit the ball with runners on base.”

The Aggies normal closer Marquis Frink got the start and wasn’t a pleasant one at first. Frink gave up four runs over the first two innings of the game, including a solo home run to Tim Carrier. But instead of being rallied against like has happened in their last two games, the Aggies did the rallying this time.

It started with a two-run blast over the left field wall by Jones in the third. It was Jones’ fourth homer in his last four games. The Aggies kept coming at the Spartans as they added another run in the fourth and tied the game at four in the fifth when walk to Beatty and a double by Nick Rogers led to a RBI groundout by McIntyre.

Frink helped the Aggies get back into the game by setting the Spartans down in order in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

The Aggies, who forced the Spartans to use seven different pitchers, took over the game in the sixth with a strong two-out rally. Nelson Santos earned a two-out walk in the sixth off of UNCG reliever Matt Bjorkstrom to put runners on first and second.

Jones walked to load the bases, setting up a Beatty two-run RBI single up the middle off of Blake Hassebrock hat scored John Primus and Santos for a 6-4 Aggies lead. A throwing error off of a Rogers grounder scored Jones. The Spartans then brought in Clay Gibson to face McIntyre. McIntyre, a known clutch hitter, launched a 2-2 pitch over the left center field wall for a three-run homer and a 10-4 Aggies lead.

The Aggies couldn’t relax on any late-inning lead. The Spartans scored two runs in the seventh and another run in the eighth when Tim Carrier scored on a wild pitch to cut the Aggies lead to three. The Aggies turned to ace pitcher Tim Johnson to close the deal and prevent the Aggies from giving their third straight late-game lead.
The Aggies improved to 12-16 overall while the Spartans fell to 18-9 overall.