Wade records two hits

Box Score
GREENSBORO, April 22, 2007 – A rough first inning for North Carolina A&T Chris Eggers and a superb outing by Longwood starter Brian McCullough led the Lancers to a 4-1 win over the Aggies in baseball action at War Memorial Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Lancers took two out of three from the Aggies in the weekend series, improving to 31-13 on the season. The Aggies fell to 16-24 on the season. Joe Wade led the Aggies with a 2-for-4 performance. But Wade’s hits didn’t come until after the sixth because McCullough had a no-hitter going into the seventh.

Nick Mayo led off the seventh by flying out to right, but Wade followed with a solid single through the right side to break up McCullough’s no-hitter bid. Jeremy Jones followed with another single through the right side to give the Aggies their biggest scoring threat of the game. However, like two previous times throughout the game, the Aggies hit into a double play to end the threat.

N.C. A&T’s next true scoring opportunity came in the ninth with Longwood holding a 4-0 lead. Pinch-hitter Neil Rosser singled down the left-field line for just the fourth hit of the game for the Aggies. It would not be the Aggies last as it appeared they had finally figured out McCullough. Nick Mayo and Wade followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases.

Mayo’s single chased McCullough from the game in favor of Needham Jones III. With the bases loaded, Jones got the Aggies Jones looking at strike three. Charlie Gamble then launched a high fly ball into right field that looked like out No. 2. But right fielder Paul Heidler II dropped the ball.

With runners waiting to see if Heidler would catch the ball, Heidler was able to force out Wade going to second even though Rosser broke up the shut out by scoring on the play. The Aggies still had hope with leading RBI man Joe McIntyre stepping to the plate with two runners on. Jones got McIntyre to groundout to second, however, ending the game.

McCullough (6-2) got the win for the Lancers, while Eggers fell to 3-7. Eggers had a decent outing, but ran into trouble in the first. Egger gave up three hits, walked two batters, including forcing in a run on walk and he hit a batter. All those misfortunes led to a three-run first inning for the Lancers. Eggers did not give up another hit after the first other than a solo home run to Tyson Childress in the third.

He pitched six innings, gave up four hits, three earned runs and struck out one. He replacements, Nick Rogers, Jody Calloway and Ron Phelps did not give up another hit for the remainder of the game, but McCullough’s performance was just too strong.

 The Aggies return to action 6 p.m., Tuesday when they travel to Rock Hill, S.C., to play Winthrop.