TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (April 27) - The Florida A&M Baseball team picked up their fifth win of the season as they split a doubleheader with North Carolina Central as the Rattlers won game one, 6-3 and with the Eagles winning game two, 8-3, here Saturday afternoon at Moore-Kittles Field.
FAMU (5-39, 4-16 MEAC) finished the contest with 10 hits as Sylvester Peck finished with three of them.
NCCU (24-23, 11-12 MEAC) recorded five hits in the contest with Luis Diaz finishing with two of them.
David Duncan (2-7) picked up the win for the Rattlers as he pitched eight innings, allowing five hits, two earned runs and striking out seven in the 32 batter he faced, while Stephen Dollard got the save as he pitched one inning in relief, striking out one in the three batters he faced.
Michael Romano (2-8), received the loss for the Eagles as he pitched seven innings, along five hits, two earned runs and striking out four in the seven innings, he was on the mound for the Rattlers.
FAMU jumped out to a 1-0 lead as Gibbs scored on a Bennie Robinson single through the right side in the bottom of the third inning.
NCCU tied the contest at 1-1 as Ronald Thompson scored on a FAMU balk in the top of the fourth inning.
The Rattlers recaptured the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning as they plated two run on a Gibbs single up the middle scoring Weeks, followed by an Eagled fielding error scoring Walker, giving FAMU a 3-1 lead.
NCCU would cut FAMU’s lead to 3-2 in the top of the sixth inning as Carter Williamson scored on a Troy Marrow ground out to short stop.
Peck made the score 4-2 in favor of the Rattlers with a solo blast to left field for his first homer of the season in the bottom of the eighth.
The Eagles picked up one more run in the top of the eighth as Luis Diaz doubled to center field scoring Zach Lee, cutting the Rattlers’ lead to, 4-3.
In the top of the eighth, FAMU would score two more runs for the 6-3 finale as Singletary led off the inning with a triple to left center and then would score on a Peck single through to the left side. Then Peter Jackson would score on a Birdsong single through to the left side.
In game two, FAMU finished the contest with seven hits with Reginald Grant finishing with two of them, while NCCU tallied game high 10 hits with Tyson Simpson collecting three of them.
Glenn Frye (3-7) picked up the win for the Eagles as he pitched seven innings, allowing seven hits, three earned runs and striking out five in the 25 batters he faced, while Heath Blackburn (1-9) received the loss for the Rattlers as he pitched three innings, allowing six hits, and four earned runs in the 16 batters he faced.
The Eagles scored a run in every inning, except for the seventh inning as NCCU scored one run in the first, second, four and sixth inning and two runs both in the third and fifth inning.
FAMU would score three runs in the bottom of the third inning as Weeks scored on a Grant single, followed by a Robinson double scoring both Grant and Walker for the 8-3 finale.
The Rattlers will return to action on Sunday, April 28 against North Carolina Central in the final game of their three-game series in a 12 p.m. start at Moore-Kittles Field. The contest was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., but was changed due expected rain fall to hit the Tallahassee area around 3 p.m.
