The North Carolina Central Eagles swept the Florida A&M Rattlers baseball team in a three-game series over the weekend at Moore-Kittles Baseball Complex.
Defensive struggles, which have been an issue for Florida A&M (5-26, 3-6 MEAC) all season, plagued the team during every game of the series.
Head coach Willie Brown said the team’s defensive woes extended innings and allowed the Eagles (8-22, 6-6 MEAC) to score unearned runs. He added that he expected to see improvement because FAMU is entering a road trip, which is when the team plays its best ball.
“We need to stop letting the ball get by us,” Brown said. “We allowed another inside-the-park homerun, and we let the balls get by us. We have a 15-game road trip, and I know we play our better games on the road. So I am hoping that trend will keep up.”
David Duncan pitched all seven innings for the Rattlers during game two. He allowed two runs and seven hits.
Duncan said the team needs to put this series behind it and focus on performing better during the next one.
“We have to leave it here in Tallahassee and get on the bus and play a new game,” Duncan said. “We have to stay motivated with the challenge of the mound. I feel that I am better than their (the Eagles) pitcher, and we have to start knowing we’re going to get hits instead of hoping to get hits.”
During the series, the Rattlers gave up 36 hits and 29 runs.
Third baseman Reginald Grant said a lack of enthusiasm hurt FAMU’s performance.
“We got down and we stayed down,” Grant said. “We didn’t help our pitching and we just stayed down. We have to keep practicing; we can’t have players and coaches yelling. We need to forget losses and keep playing like its zero to zero.”
The Rattlers will return to action today against Florida International (14-13) in Miami. The first pitch will be thrown at 6 p.m.