Dylan Dillard’s RBI Triple in the 10th Inning Lifts Florida A&M Over NC Central 5-4

DYLAN DILLARD

DURHAM, North Carolina – Dylan Dillard scored Alec Wong with an RBI triple in the top of the 10th inning to give Florida A&M (26-18, 16-5 MEAC) a 5-4 win over North Carolina Central (24-27, 11-13 MEAC) at the Durham Athletic Park on Sunday afternoon. The FAMU pitching staff combined to hold NC Central hitless over the final 6.2 innings. Sawyer Betts came in to pitch in the fifth inning and went five scoreless innings of relief with no hits, one walk and three strikeouts to earn the win. Betts faced the minimum number of batters. Dillard finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate with a double, triple and four RBI.

Kendal Weeks sat the Eagles down in order in the bottom of the 10th inning to pick up his fifth save of the season. Offensively, Brian Davis also went 2-for-5 with a double, RBI and a run scored.

The Rattlers scored first with three runs in the third inning for a 3-0 lead. Marlon Gibbs and Wong drew back-to-back walks with two outs before Davis scored Gibbs from second with an RBI single to center field. Both runners then advanced on a wild pitch andDillard drove in both Wong and Davis with a two-run single to left field.

NC Central answered to take the lead with four runs (two earned) in the bottom of the third inning for a 4-3 lead. Ellington Hopkins dropped in a bloop single to left field to lead off the inning. Trevor Theissen then reached on a fielding error by Ryan Hutson as runners were now on first and second with no outs. James Dey followed with a single to right field to load the bases and Hopkins scored from third on a groundout to second by Carlos Ortiz. Zachary Marszal plated Thiessen with an RBI single into center field and Dey came home on a single to right field by Tom Prospero that tied the game at 3-3. With runners on the corners, Danny Rodriguez came in for relief of starter Chase Jarrell. Marszal would score the then go-ahead run on a sac fly to left field from Conrad Kovalcik. Rodriguez was able to get Christian Triplett to end the inning on a groundout to short.

FAMU tied the game at 4-4 on an RBI double from Dillard in the fifth inning. Gibbs led off with a single into the right center gap and was later out at second as Wong reached on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Wong moved to second on a balk and then came around to score the tying run on an RBI double into right center from Dillard.

In the 10th inning with one out, Wong doubled down the right line and Dillard crushed an RBI triple over the head of the centerfielder, Ortiz, to give the Rattlers a 5-4 lead.

Justice Sampson (3-3) suffered the loss after giving up the go-ahead run in the 10th inning. Sampson pitched 0.2 innings with one run on two hits.

Florida A&M returns home this week to end the 2016 regular season with a five game home stand. The Rattlers will face Mercer for a pair of mid-week games on Tuesday and Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 4:00 PM on both days. FAMU will then close out the regular season against North Carolina A&T next weekend at Moore-Kittles Field. There will be a single game on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday.

As always, fans can follow Rattler Baseball on Twitter @BaseballFAMU and on Facebook. Live Stats are also availableon the baseball schedule page of FAMUAthletics.com.

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