Terrence Connelly came to bat in the bottom of the ninth 0-4 on Wednesday with three pop outs and one strikeout to his name.

Typically, those stats would lead to a rather forgettable night for the sophomore shortstop, but when he stepped in the box in the ninth inning with his team down 4-3 and the bases loaded, he had an opportunity for redemption.

Connelly took two balls and fouled off two more pitches before lining a fastball in between the shortstop and third baseman. Luis Renvil scored from third, and Josh Abshire slid home safely from second, giving the Seahawks a 5-4 victory over Coastal Carolina. It was their third walk-off victory this season.

“Connelly has as good an eye and as good of plate discipline as anybody we have and really competes with two strikes and it showed up in that last at bat tonight.” UNCW Head Coach Mark Scalf said. “He was able to eliminate his first four at bats, he didn’t have a real good night offensively, but he came up big when he had to.”

The Seahawks improved their record to 13-14 with the win. After the game, both the coaches and players agreed that this comeback victory could provide some much-needed momentum for the team.

UNCW fell behind early and trailed 3-0 at the end of two innings. The Seahawks slowly fought back and tied the game in the sixth inning, and the score remained 3-3 until the ninth inning when Coastal Carolina took a 4-3 lead off UNCW closer Kelly Secrest.

Renvil led off the bottom of the ninth for UNCW with a pinch-hit double down the right field line, and Abshire followed him with a single into center field. Casey Golden then reached first base on a fielder’s choice, setting the stage for Connelly.

“Paying attention to the at-bats before me, I was sitting on curveball and reacting to the fastball,” Connelly said. “Any win is a big win for us, but a win like this gets us excited. I think it’s good for everyone involved and hopefully we can carry it into the weekend.”

After starting pitcher Evan Phillips exited the game in the fourth inning the UNCW bullpen came on and pitched six innings and only gave up one run. Three times Coastal Carolina loaded the bases in the final six innings, and the UNCW bullpen didn’t allow a run in any of those three bases-loaded situations.

It was a mid-week contest, but Scalf knew this was an important game for the Seahawks and decided to bring out closer Kelly Secrest in the seventh inning.

William Prince was the winning pitcher on the night, despite only recording one out in the top of the ninth. He combined with Secrest, Ricky Holden, and Nick Monroe in relief for UNCW.

“From a pitching and defensive standpoint I thought we played extremely well. Ricky (Holden) and Kelly (Secrest) competed tremendously well for us to give us an opportunity to win a ballgame,” Scalf said.

The Seahawks will try to build of this walk-off win when the team travels to Virginia this weekend to face William & Mary in their second conference series of the season. Defending conference pitcher of the year Mat Batts will look to earn his first victory of the year when he starts for UNCW this Friday.