SAVANNAH, Ga.- The Savannah State baseball team split a doubleheader with North Carolina A&T, losing the opener 7-5 but winning the second game 4-3.
Both contests were played at Tiger Field.
The second game took 11 innings but SSU came away with the win by scoring twice in the bottom of the 11th.
Jonathan Moore was hit by a pitch in the first inning and later scored on an error by the shortstop. SSU (8-20, 3-5 MEAC) had the bases loaded in the third and a walk to Miller allowed Somto Egbuna, who was hit by a pitch, to score to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. The Aggies tied the game by scoring twice in the top of the sixth .
A&T went ahead 3-2 in the top of the 11th on a RBI bunt by Dawnoven Smith.
In the bottom half of the inning, Khalyd Cox led off with a walk and scored on a double by Mendez Elder to tie the game at 3-3. Elder advanced to third on a ground-out by Cole Bruce and scored the game winning run on a balk by A&T pitcher Will Greene. Elder had two hits to lead SSU while Greg Smith picked up the win in relief. Smith pitched two innings and gave up two hits and one run. Ryan McRanie started the game for the Tigers and struck out eight in his nine innings.
Smith had three hits for the Aggies (7-22, 3-5 MEAC).
Savannah State left 12 runners on base while A&t left nine.
In the first game, the Aggies led 3-0 after three and a half innings of play.
In the bottom of the fourth, Moore walked and scored on a ground-out by Charles Sikes. A&T added two more runs in the seventh to increase their advantage to 5-1.
The Tigers struck for four runs in the eighth on just two hits.
Jalen Atterbury reached on a fielder's choice and scored on a sacrifice fly by Moore. Elder, who singled, scored on a wild pitch and Somto Egbuna hit a two run double that sent Brian Miller and Cole Bruce across home plate to make the score 5-5. The Aggies left the bases loaded in the top of the ninth but were able to score twice while holding Savannah State hitless in the bottom half of the inning to get the win.
Savannah State only had four hits in the game while leaving four men on base and making one error.
Brandon Whitmore was tagged with the loss. Whitmore gave up two hits, two runs and two walks in two inning on the mound. Adan Ordonez had three hits for A&T while. Danny Garrett got the win. Garret pitched the final one and one third inning and gave up one hit and one walk.
The Aggies had nine hits, made two errors and left eight on base.
