Box Score

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Second-seeded North Carolina A&T scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and pitcher Esterlin Paulino made them stand up in a 7-2 Aggies' win over third-seeded Norfolk State in the MEAC Baseball Tournament on Friday afternoon at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

The Aggies (30-24) play No. 1 Bethune-Cookman in Saturday's 2 p.m. winner's bracket final for a berth in Sunday's championship round. The Spartans (20-28-1) play Delaware State in a 10 a.m. elimination game on Saturday.

NSU wasted little time getting on the board as Brandon Hairston (North Garden, Va.) smoked a two-out RBI single in the top of the first to score John Rasberry (Suffolk, Va.) from second base.

But the second-seeded Aggies batted around their order in the bottom of the fourth, scoring five runs on six hits. Xavier Macklin tied the game with an RBI double. Marquis Riley then knocked in a run with a fielder's choice grounder. Kelvin Freeman and Mark Nales each added an RBI single in the frame, and Freeman scored on a double play to make it 5-1 in the Aggies' favor.

A&T added single runs in the sixth and eighth, both of which were unearned as a result of NSU errors. The Spartans scored once more in the eighth on a Cameron Parsons (Chesapeake, Va.) groundout, but could not mount a serious threat against Paulino (9-2). The left hander tossed a complete game, allowing nine hits and two runs, one earned. He walked one and struck out four.

Chase Davenport (Wooster, Ohio) took the loss for NSU, allowing seven hits and five runs, all earned, in 3.2 innings of work.

Macklin and Nales had two hits each for the Aggies, who had just two hits outside of the fourth inning. The Spartans had nine hits, led by Hairston's 3-for-4 day and Rasberry's 2-for-5 effort.