A&T Gets Strong Midweek Win Over App State
Jaheim Brown pitches 6.2 innings of shutout baseball.EAST GREENSBORO – Behind some elite pitching from freshman right-hander Jaheim Brown, the North Carolina A&T baseball team picked up their second midweek win of the season, defeating the Appalachian State Mountaineers, 4-2, inside War Memorial Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
"On Tuesday, you really want to be able to bring your guys out and play your best 27 outs," said A&T head coach Ben Hall. "Across the country, you see it, in these midweek games, not everybody does that. Getting away from that a little bit playing better baseball than we did last week is important. This was a good ballgame, and we saw some improvement with guys taking care of the baseball and getting some big hits when we needed them."
Brown (W, 1-1) got the start on the mound for the Aggies (7-9) and went 6.2 innings, allowing just one run on six hits with three strikeouts.
"He's good," said Hall of Brown. "He's a good pitcher. He's definitely ahead of his years and his confidence in himself. Bottom line; he throws a ton of strikes, and he stays down in the strike zone. That's hard to hit; I don't care where you are. It's hard to lift a pitch when it's down. He's going to give us a chance to win every time he's out there."
Even still, the game was not drama-free toward the end like Hall had hoped.
Sophomore RHP Isaiah Brewington came on in relief to start the ninth. Immediately, App State (6-9) went to work. The Mountaineers recorded three straight hits.
Austin St. Laurent smacked a single up the middle to open the frame. Then, all-conference second baseman Luke Drumheller roped another single into right field, but the Aggies threw out St. Laurent, trying to stretch his advance to third base. Phillip Cole recorded the third straight hit single to put runners on the corners with one out.
Alex Aguila drew a walk to load the bases before A&T freshman RHP Evan Demurias (SV, 2) replaced Brewington on the bump.
Demurias immediately drew a groundball toward first base. Junior infielder Cort Maynard fired the ball to sophomore Alex Reyna at second for one out, and Reyna launched it back to Maynard in an attempted double play, but RJ Johnson beat the throw allowing Drumheller to score from third, making it 4-2.
"Very big," said Brown when asked about the importance of good relief pitching. "In practice, they work hard. They're always prepared. That's really what we teach, so I knew they were going to come in and shut them down for me."
Andrew Terrell stepped into the batter's box next and grounded toward Reyna at short, and the sophomore cannoned the throw to first, just beating Terrell for the final out.
The Aggies did a lot of their damage offensively in the home first. Maynard popped a deep fly ball over Andrew Greckel's head in left field for a double. Sophomore Xavier Bussey followed with a double to right center, scoring Maynard. Sophomore designated hitter Camden Jackson followed with a triple, the first of his career, down the right field line to bring Bussey around to score.
Graduate Alec Seaton stranded Jackson at third with an inning-ending strikeout.
A&T added two more to its run tally in the fifth on Bussey's bases-loaded, two-RBI single. Bussey went 2-for-4 in the game with three RBI. He has reached base safely in 16 straight games and boasts a team-high 15 RBI.
The Aggies move to 5-0 on the year when they score in the first inning and 5-2 when they are the first team to score.
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