Four different Aggies record three hits

Box Score
SPARTANBURG, March 28, 2007 – Patrick Oates continued his tremendous play after coming off of an preseason injury to lead the North Carolina A&T baseball team to a 14-9 win over Wofford Wednesday. Oates hit two more home runs and went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two RBI.

The Aggies (8-15) are on their longest winning streak of the season, which stands at three games. They have also won four out of their last five. Before the season, Oates sustained an ankle injury and didn’t play his first game until March 11. In eight games, he is hitting .407 with eight RBI and four home runs, which gives him the team lead.

Jeremy Jones, Kory Kinnear and C.J. Beatty also homered for the Aggies. Jones, Oates, Kinnear and Beatty each had three hits as well.

The second of Oates’ three home runs came in the fourth when the junior out of Clinton, N.C., slammed one over the left-center field wall at Russell C. King Field wall in the fourth to put the Aggies down by just one run, 3-2. Kinnear followed and tied the game at three with his third homer of the season. The two teams went back-and-forth over the next two innings until the Aggies took over the game in the seventh.

N.C. A&T held a 7-6 lead going into the seventh and increased that lead when Jones led the inning off with his third home run of the season and the 12^th of his career to give the Aggies a two-run lead. Charlie Gamble kept the rally going by being walked by Wofford reliever Lance Player. Oates advance Gamble to second with a single.

Player’s wild pitch put Gamble and Oates in scoring position. Kinnear brought Gamble home with a single up the middle, and Nelson Santos scored Oates with another single to give the Aggies a 10-6 lead. The Terriers went to their bullpen again, brining Whit Kennedy. The Aggies bats would not slow down, however.

After Lester Rivenbark fouled out, Beatty singled to left field to load the bases as Kinnear moved third and Santos moved to second. After Kinnear was forced out at home on a Nick Mayo grounder, Kennedy unleashed a wild pitch that scored Santos. Joe McIntyre capped off the scoring in the seventh with a two-run RBI single to left field to give the Aggies a 13-6 lead.

The Terries came back with three runs in their half of the seventh before the Aggies bullpen took command of the game. Ron Phelps and Jody Calloway pitched each of the last two innings of the game and did not surrender a hit or a run.  Nick Rogers earned his first collegiate win as he entered the game in the sixth with the Aggies leading 7-4.

The Aggies will be back in action this weekend when they play a three-game series against conference rival Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Fla. The Saturday doubleheader starts at 1 p.m., while Sunday’s game begins at 1 p.m.