Box Score
DOVER, Del., April 29, 2007 – If the North Carolina A&T baseball team could have avoided one particular half inning on Sunday, everything would have worked out fine.

The bottom of the third did happen, however, and it helped Delaware State take a two-game hold on second-place with a 15-13 win over the Aggies at Soldier Field. The Aggies fell to 17-28 overall and 8-7 in the MEAC. Delaware State improved to 21-19-2 overall and 10-5 in the MEAC. The top teams in the MEAC receive byes in the MEAC Baseball Tournament. Each team has three conference games remaining.

Jeremy Jones led the Aggies with a 3-for-5 day that included a home run and three RBI. C.J. Beatty added three hits a home run and four RBI.

The Aggies appeared to be headed for a second-place tie with the Hornets. Charlie Gamble led off the Aggies second with his third home run in his last five at-bats as he hit a towering shot to right-center field. After Kory Kinnear walked and Neil Rosser doubled, freshman C.J. Beatty stepped to the plate and hit his eighth home run of the season, a three-run blast to center field that gave the Aggies an early 4-0 lead.

N.C. A&T’s good fortunes continued in the third. Nick Mayo left the inning off with a double, which was followed by a Jeremy Jones home run to left field. It was the 14^th home run of his career, and it gave the Aggies a 6-0 lead.

Gamble followed with a walk and a stolen base, which led to a Joe McIntyre RBI double to left. Neil Rosser capped off the four-run inning with a sacrifice fly to center field to give the Aggies a seemingly comfortable 8-0 lead.

Then came Delaware State’s third inning. The Hornets had 16 players come to the plate in an unbelievable 14-run inning that saw Aggie pitching walk four batters, commit two errors and give up seven hits. The Aggies pitched three different pitchers before the inning was over as the Hornets came away with a 14-8 lead.

The Aggies chipped away at the lead. Kinnear’s two-run home run in the seventh cut the Hornets lead to 14-12. But the Hornets added a run in their half of the seventh to give Bittner more room to work with. But Jones’ one-out triple in the eighth led to an RBI by Gamble that put the Aggies down 15-13 going into the ninth.

Beatty’s double brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Nelson Santos grounded out to shortstop to end the game. The Aggies continue their season on Wednesday when they travel to Boiling Springs, N.C., to face Gardner-Webb at 3 p.m.