Aggies celebrate Senior Day early

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GREENSBORO, May 6, 2007 – During Sunday’s Senior Day ceremonies at War Memorial Stadium, senior Charlie Gamble and redshirt junior Jeremy Jones earned a special recognition for their many contributions to the North Carolina A&T baseball program.

And although Gamble and Jones have accounted for nearly 25 percent of the runs scored by the Aggies during their respective careers, it was one-year senior Kory Kinnear who came up with the big hit on Sunday. Kinnear’s two-run RBI single in the sixth gave the Aggies the lead for good in a 9-4 win over Coppin State. Although Jones is a redshirt junior, he wanted to be honored with the freshman class he came with four years ago.

The win improved the Aggies to 20-29 on the season and 11-7 in the conference, while Coppin State fell to 0-44 and 0-18. With Florida A&M’s loss to Norfolk State on Sunday, the Aggies are in a second-place tie with the Rattlers. The Rattlers will earn the second seed in the May 17-19 MEAC Baseball Tournament in Norfolk, Va., because they beat the Aggies two out of three earlier this season.

Jones and Gamble didn’t have shabby senior days. Jones was 1-for-3 with a RBI and Gamble went 4-for-4 with three runs scored as he increased his batting average to .409 on the season. The other two seniors honored on Sunday were Joel Battle and Jasper Smith. The Aggies still have three home games remaining, but decided to celebrate Senior Day early because the weekend date made it easier for parents to participate.

Coppin State looked to spoil the day’s festivities as it led 4-3 going into the sixth. Eagles starter Teon Richburg made it even harder on the Aggies by getting Jones to fly out to open the inning. But Gamble followed with singled to left center and moved himself to scoring position by stealing second.

Richburg then walked McIntyre and surrendered a single to C.J. Beatty to load the bases, clearing the way for Kinnear’s big hit. Kinnear ripped a single past Coppin State first baseman Elgin Thomas to score Gamble and McIntyre to take a 5-4 lead.

N.C. A&T put the game away in the seventh. The problems for Coppin State began with a dropped fly ball by center fielder Archie Scott that allowed Neil Rosser to reach base. Joe Wade, who homered in the third, singled to center field. Wade’s hit put Rosser on third, setting up Nick Mayo’s RBI single to right to give the Aggies a two-run lead.

With runners on third and second, Jones stepped up and hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Wade from third. A balk by relief pitcher Andrew Boyer allowed Mayo to score from third. With the bases empty, Gamble doubled, leading to a McIntyre sacrifice fly to close out the Aggies scoring.

Smith as a part of the Senior Day honors was the starting pitcher. Chris Eggers replaced him to start the fifth and earned the win. Eggers improved to 4-8 by pitching five innings, giving up just two hits, one run and striking out seven.

The Aggies are in action again on Wednesday when they play Jackson State at War Memorial Stadium at 7 p.m.