Charlotte beats Aggies in regularly scheduled game

Box Score 1

Box Score 2
CHARLOTTE, April 8, 2008 – The North Carolina A&T baseball team had its chances of upsetting No. 26 Charlotte  on March 19 halted because of a downpour that hit War Memorial Stadium in the seventh inning.   

The two teams decided to continue the game on April 8 in Charlotte before their regularly scheduled game. After three weeks for the possible upset, the Aggies came up short as the 49ers held on for an 8-7 win. The 49ers then knocked off the Aggies in the regularly scheduled game, 7-1.

The Aggies trailed 8-6 with Jeremy Jones on second in the bottom of the seventh when the game was suspended because of rain. There was one out as Charlotte reliever Michael Maples continued his work on the mound by getting C.J. Beatty to groundout. Beatty’s groundout moved Jones to third, which set up Nick Rogers’ RBI single to right to move the Aggies to within one.

Nelson Santos kept the rally going with a single up the middle. The 49ers turned to Kelly McClain to slow down the Aggies rally. McClain got Neil Rosser to fly out to right field to end the seventh. Aggies reliever Cyril Daniel kept the 49ers off the board to give the Aggies a chance.

In the ninth, Daniel surrendered a two-out single up the middle to Chris Taylor. John Primus replaced Daniel and got Alan Parks to fly out to left to end the inning. But the Aggies could never mount a serious offensive threat against closer Sam Pierce as he earned his fourth save of the season. Charlotte improved to 25-5 on the season.

Rogers and Santos led the Aggies with three hits apiece. Rogers added two RBIs and Jones scored three times. In the second game, the Aggies managed only three hits off of three 49er pitchers. Joe McIntyre had two of those hits and scored the only Aggies run. The Aggies dropped to 12-21 on the season and will play the University of North Carolina Wednesday at 6 p.m., in Cary, N.C.