Hines’ day included five hits, four runs scored

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GREENSBORO, April 11, 2009 – No matter how big a lead the Maryland-Eastern Shore baseball team tried to take, North Carolina A&T refused to let those leads stand.

But in the ninth, the Fighting Hawks took a lead the Aggies couldn’t overcome as they went on to win 15-13 in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader at War Memorial Stadium. The Hawks won the second game 5-1.

In the first game, the teams combined for a whopping 28 runs, 35 hits and eight extra base hits. Freshman Xavier Macklin led the Aggies by going 5-for-6 with five RBIs, a home run and two runs scored. Lead-off hitter George Hines had three hits and scored four times. Jaron Neal added four hits and two RBIs, and C.J. Beatty hit a home run, had three RBIs and scored four times.

Despite all the Aggies offense, they found themselves down 9-4 going into the home half of the sixth. Macklin’s RBI single scored Marquis Riley to cut the Hawks’ lead to four. Beatty put a big dent in the UMES lead by ripping his fifth home run of the season over the right-field wall for a three-run homer that made it 9-8.  

But the Aggies kept coming after the Hawks. The eighth opened with Hines reaching second thanks to a dropped fly ball in left field. Macklin took advantage again as he hit his fifth home run of the season. Macklin’s shot went to the deepest part of the field and traveled approximately 410 feet to put the Aggies down 11-10. The Aggies were not finished. A Beatty walk was followed by a Nick Rogers groundout that moved Beatty to second.

Beatty moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Neal RBI single to tie the game at 11. Chris Mullins’ single and an error on a Lester Rivenbark groundball loaded the bases for N.C. A&T. Riley gave the Aggies their first lead of the game with a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Neal for a 12-11 advantage.

The lead would not last, however. Bryan Chaikowsky’s two-run RBI double gave the Hawks the lead again at 13-12. Franklin Armstrong added some insurance with a two-run RBI single to give the Hawks a three-run lead going into the ninth.

True to form, the Aggies again put together a rally. But this rally fell short. Hines’ double was followed by a Macklin RBI double to cut the lead to two. Three opportunities to tie the game were not successful as the two losses on Saturday dropped the Aggies to 7-24 overall and 3-7 in the MEAC. In the second game, Hines led the Aggies with two hits.