Daniel gets his first career win

Box Score
GREENSBORO, April 10, 2007 – The North Carolina A&T bullpen is starting to show signs of improvement as the Aggies baseball team heads toward the latter end of its season.

On Sunday, Jody Calloway and Ron Phelps helped shut the door on a Bethune-Cookman rally. On Tuesday, Cyril Daniel and Ron Phelps shut down High Point University in the late innings to help the Aggies earn an 8-3 win over the Panthers at War Memorial Stadium.  

The Aggies improved to 11-21 as they won their second straight, while the Panthers fell to 18-18 on the season. Jeremy Jones led the Aggies with two hits and two RBI, while Kory Kinnear added two hits and two runs scored.

Hits didn’t come easy for the Aggies early on. High Point starter Tony Flores had a no-hitter going for 5.2 innings until Jones broke it up with a single up the middle. Everything would unravel from there for the Panthers. Charlie Gamble followed Jones’ single with a hit, advancing Jones to third, which set up the Aggies first run. Flores unleashed a wild pitch that allowed Jones to score, putting the Aggies down 2-1.

Flores was relieved by Chad Jennings to start the Aggies half of the seventh. Jennings’ appearance did nothing to slow down the Aggie bats. Jennings opened his appearance by walking Oates. Kory Kinnear followed with a single to left-center field to put runners at first and second. After C.J. Beatty reached on a fielder’s choice that eliminated Oates from the base pads, Lester Rivenbark blooped a single to left field to score Kinnear.

Nelson Santos kept the rally going with another single to score Beatty and give the Aggies a 3-2 lead. Nick Mayo broke the string of singles but not the string of runs scored. Mayo rolled a grounder to the pitcher. Jennings decided to try to get Rivenbark going home, but the throw slid past catcher Tucker Stobbe, allowing Santos to go to third on the errant throw.

The Panthers turned to R.J. Chlebnikow to halt the Aggies momentum, but he couldn’t. Mayo stole second to set up Jones’ two-run RBI single that gave the Aggies a 6-2 lead. Gamble capped the rally by doubling to center field to score Jones and give the Aggies a commanding 7-2 lead.

Head coach Kieth Shumate turned to Cyril Daniel, who took over for starter Jonathan Smith in the seventh, returned for the eighth and worked his way around a one-out walk to put away the Panthers without surrendering a run.

A Joe Wade RBI single in the eighth gave the Aggies an even bigger lead, but Daniel ran into trouble in the ninth. High Point’s Robby Kuzdale reached on an error to open the inning. Daniel got Jeff Cowen to groundout, but walked Bill Manion to put runners on first and second. Randy Schwartz followed with an RBI single to score Kuzdale.

Shumate turned to Ron Phelps, who pitched 1.2 innings of solid baseball on Sunday to help end Bethune-Cookman’s 20-game winning streak within the conference. Phelps stepped in and got Chris Norwood to hit a grounder to third base in which Gamble used to start a double play to end the game.

The Aggies return to action on Wednesday to play Wofford at 3 p.m., from War Memorial Stadium. High Point’s Alfie Wheeler was 1-for-3 with a run scored. Chris Norwood scored the Panthers first run of the game when he was singled home by Matt Schlanger in the second. The Panthers benefited from an Aggies miscue in the third to take a 2-0 lead as Santos dropped Mayo’s attempt to force out Manion at second, leading to Wheeler’s score.