Aggies win third straight, knock off Elon
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina A&T left-hander DarAmani Swift seemed to find a way to pitch himself out of troublesome situations and senior Luke Tendler produced another two RBI to lead A&T to a rare win over Elon, 5-3 Wednesday afternoon at War Memorial Stadium.
It was the Aggies (4-2) third straight win and just their third win overall in the 30-game series with their Triad neighbor Elon.
The Phoenix (6-2) left 12 men on base. The Aggies jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as Ryan Hill led off the Aggies first with a triple to left field. He scored on an error by Elon left fielder Casey Jones one batter later. Tendler would walk and Cameron Jergens singled to load the bases for Lester Salcedo whose sacrifice fly to right scored Brandon Mitchell. Brandon Wilkerson drove in the third run of the inning when he into a force play at second, allowing Tendler to score. The Aggies scored a run in the third and fifth to go up 5-0.
Swift (1-0), making his firs appearance of the season, allowed six walks and six hits. But got every timely out he needed until the seventh. He led that inning off by walking Andy Moore. The Aggies then turned to right-hand reliever Jamal Clark. Clark gave up two consecutive singles before Jones grounded out to first to score Elon's first run. Quinn Bower then scored on an Aggies error and Sebastian Gomez scored on a Ryan Cooper groundout to make it 5-3.
Brian Poag came on in the eighth with out and retired two straight Phoenix. After an error to open up the ninth, he got Cooper to ground out and he struck out D.J. Paone and Chris King to earn his first save of the season.
For complete story, visit www.ncataggies.com
Duke pulls away late to defeat Norfolk State
DURHAM, N.C. – Drew Van Orden pitched six strong innings and host Duke pulled away late for an 11-1 win over Norfolk State on Wednesday evening at Jack Coombs Field.
Van Orden allowed just three hits and one run in six innings, while the Blue Devils (5-3) offense outhit NSU (1-6) by a 12-3 margin.
After two scoreless innings, the Blue Devils scored twice with two outs in the third off NSU left hander Devin Hemmerich, making his first career start. Kenny Koplove singled to lead off the inning and reached third on a throwing error by Hemmerich. NSU appeared to skirt trouble when the next batter, Mark Lumpa, flied out and Koplove was thrown out at home by Spartan left fielder Tyon Ore. But Mike Rosenfeld drew a walk and Grant McCabe singled. Both scored on Ryan Deitrich’s two-run double.
The Spartans cut their deficit in half in the top of the fifth inning. Ross Cardwell and Ore hit consecutive singles to lead off the inning, and Cardwell came home on Justin Burrell’s two-out single.
But Duke scored twice more in the bottom of the fifth to stretch its lead to 4-1. Lumpa led off with a triple off NSU reliever Cooper Jones. Lumpa scored on a wild pitch. Later in the inning, Chris Marconcini walked and scored on a two-out Spartan outfield error.
Rosenfeld tacked on a two-run triple for Duke in the sixth. The Blue Devils added five more in the seventh, thanks in part to a two-run single by McCabe and two NSU errors.
Hemmerich (0-1) took the loss, allowing five hits and two runs in four innings. He walked one and struck out two. Those were the first earned runs allowed this year for Hemmerich, who was making his fifth appearance.
McCabe and Koplove had two hits each for Duke. All three NSU hits came in the fifth inning.
The Spartans are back home for a four-game series this Saturday and Sunday against defending MEAC champion Savannah State. The teams play a doubleheader starting at noon on Saturday, and another double-dip on Sunday starting at 1 p.m.
For complete story, visit www.nsuspartans.com