Defense hurts Aggies in softball tournament

Box Score vs. DSU

Box Score vs. FAMU
ORMOND BEACH, Fla., May 8, 2008 – The murmurs around the Ormond Beach Sports Complex on Thursday suggested that most observers were shocked to see the North Carolina A&T softball eliminated from the 2008 MEAC Tournament on the first day.

But one of those observers was not N.C. A&T head coach Mamie Jones. After posting the best regular-season in the history of the program, the Aggies lost 5-1 to Delaware State and later lost 4-3 to Florida A&M. The two losses in the double elimination tournament ended the Aggies season at 31-17-1. They won a share of the MEAC South Division regular-season title.  

“I’m not shocked,’’ said Jones. “I told them before we started playing that if we didn’t hit the ball and we didn’t play defense, we weren’t going to be successful. Today, we simply didn’t hit the ball and our defense let us down.”

If the Aggies did have an Achilles heel this season it was defense. They committed 87 errors on the season, but those mistakes were usually covered up by their outstanding offense that ranked as one of the nation’s best all season. Neither phase of the game worked for the Aggies on Thursday.

N.C. A&T, the No. 2 seed from the MEAC South, opened the tournament against the North’s third seed Delaware State. Hornets starter Brittany Ruark kept the Aggies sluggers off balance all afternoon with a serious of breaking balls. Aggies starter Jennifer Luper was just as effective as the two teams went into the sixth inning scoreless.

The Hornets bent the numbers on the scoreboard first with a RBI single from Aishia Holloman in the sixth. The Aggies answered in the home half of the sixth with a RBI sacrifice fly from Lillian Bullock that scored Yahamma White.

But in the seventh, the Aggies would come unglued. Back-to-back one-out errors led to the Hornets taking a 2-1 lead. Andrea Waters followed with an infield single to put runners on first and third. After a pop out, Sha Tabor hit a two-out RBI single through the right side to score Megan Lambertz. An infield single by Shields allowed Waters to score for a 4-1 Delaware State lead. Holloman capped the rally with a RBI single through the left side.

The Aggies went in order in their seventh to fall into the loser’s bracket. Yahamma White led the Aggies  with two hits and a run scored. Tangie Conover went 2-for-2 on the day. Luper (20-5), the 2008 MEAC Rookie of the Year, took the loss. Ruark (12-10) was the winner pitcher after pitching a complete-game five-hitter.

The Aggies fortunes seemed to be turning around in their elimination game against Florida A&M. Thanks to some outstanding base running and a Florida A&M miscue, the Aggies took an early 3-0 lead against the Rattlers. Freshman Ryanne Hill helped with the first-inning scoring as she hit a RBI single to left that scored Bullock.

But the Aggies stopped hitting again, allowing the Rattlers to chip away at their lead. Nikki Terryn made it 3-2 in the third with a RBI sacrifice fly that scored Melanie Oliphant. The Rattlers made their biggest push in the fifth, however. Oliphant opened the fifth with a single off of Aggies starter Sasha Philpot. Florida A&M catcher Ashley Smith’s grounder allowed Oliphant to move into scoring position at second.

Al Strafford tied the game at 3 with a RBI single to right that scored Oliphant. Another Aggies error allowed Terryn to reach and it led to Philpot’s departure after pitching 4 1/3 innings. Luper replaced Philpot and was greeted with single off the bat of Tiffany Chan. Joyce Harold would then step up and hit what would be the game-winning RBI as she flew out to left field. The fly ball brought Strafford home from third to give the Rattlers a one-run lead.

A one-run deficit wouldn’t normally be a daunting task for a team that came into the tournament ranked fifth in the nation in runs scored per game. But for some reason on Friday, it was. A White single was all the offense the Aggies could muster over the last two innings of the game. Oliphant, the Rattlers starter on the mound, got Tangie Conover to hit into a force play to end the game. Oliphant improved to 7-10 on the season, while Philpot dropped to 10-10.

“We had a great season, but we didn’t finish it the way we should have,’’ said Jones. “I hope this will be a learning experience for them. They had a lot of success in the tournament last year, but you’re not guaranteed success in the tournament just because you show up.”