Florida A&M baseball team drop five straight

The Florida A&M University baseball team lost five straight games to EdwardWaters College, Jacksonville University and three games to North Carolina A&T.Head coach Robert Lucas said, “We just didn’t play well. We didn’t swing the bat like I thought we would.The Rattlers kicked off their five game road trip facing off against Edward Waters College Tigers on Tuesday in Jacksonville at James Paul Small Park.The Rattlers were led by there third baseman Derrick Shaw as he went fourof- five from the plate scoring two runs with one RBI.Rattler outfielder Darryl Evans would stand out as he scored on the Tigers pitcher Justin Abney as hit a bases loaded single to jump start a 10-run inning for the Rattlers, giving them a 15-14 lead.Even though these runs were scored the top of the ninth, the Tigers would rallyback and come out on top.Left fielder Neil Martino scored on right fielder Eric Coffin’s ground out to the pitcher, followed by a Darryl Wilson single scoring designated hitter Tyler Parrott for the 16-15 win.Florida A&M University catcher Oscar Santalo said, “We need a lot of work and we haven’t perfected pitching and defense but we are getting a lot more runs in.”The following afternoon, the Florida A&M Rattlers traveled to Sessions Stadium as they faced the Jacksonville University Dolphins.The Rattlers came in looking bring themselves back up from a nail bitter against Edward Watters College, but were unsuccessful again as went down losing 12 to 6. The Dolphins shut out the Rattlers until the sixth inning when they cut their deficit to 8 to 3 when infielderJared Jeffries hit a RBI triple down the right field line.The Rattlers scored two more runs in the ninth when left fielder Darius Washington hit an RBI single and pinch runner Randon Pinklney scored on a throwing error by the Dolphins.However, this was not enough to get the Rattlers a win as they fell to Jacksonville State University 12 to 6.The last three games of the Rattlers’ five game road trip were against North Carolina A&T, and one of them was a double header. On Friday at the War Memorial Stadium in Greensboro, N.C., the NC A&T Aggies defeated the Florida A&M Ratters 13-4 in game one.In the bottom of the first Florida A&M pitcher, Heath Blackburn gave up a solo shot to right field to Aggie centerfielder George Hines giving NC A&T and early lead at 1-0. In the bottom of the third, designated hitter for the Aggies, Nick Rogers took Blackburn deep to center making the score 2-0. At the top of the fourth inning, the Rattler bats camealive.In the top of the fourth inning, the Rattlers were able to tie the game with runs scored by third basemen Derrick Shaw and left fielder Darius Washington.The Aggies scored four runs in the bottom of the inning by playing small ball, advancing runners by sacrifice flies and sacrifice bunts making the score 4-2.The top of the sixth inning, the Rattlers were able to score a run due to catcher Oscar Santolo’s RBI. But the bottom of the sixth inning the Aggies did more damage by scoring six more runs.The Rattlers did score once in the top of the ninth inning, but that did not help.Game two started more in Florida A&M’s favor with the Rattlers jumping to a one run lead.Top of the third inning was productive for the Rattlers with Derrick Shaw driving in two RBIs. Later Shaw would score because of left fielder Stavo Martin’s RBI. After three innings, Florida A&Mhad a 4-0 lead, but after that, the NC A&T bats caught fire.In the next three innings combined for the Aggies they had 13 runs. After only seven innings of play the final score was like game one, 4-13.In the final game of the three game series with North Carolina A&T, Aggies had control of the game from the first pitch. The Rattlers scored once early in the first inning, but the second, third,fifth and sixth inning belonged to NC A&T scoring a combined 16 runs.In the top eighth inning, the Rattler mustered up five runs, including a stand out play coming from center fielder Tobi Adeyemi.With bases loaded, Adeyemi hit a base clearing triple but the effort wasn’tenough. The Aggies finished the game scoring eight runs making the final score 25-7.