The West Virginia Mountaineers scored six runs in the second inning en route to a 9-3 victory over the UNC Wilmington Seahawks on Saturday. The loss drops the Seahawks to 10-11 on the year.

Jordan Ramsey was hit hard in his first start in three weeks since injuring a fingernail earlier in March. Ramsey only gave up three hits over an inning and a third, but gave up eight runs. He struggled finding the zone, walking two batters and hitting three more.

“I just didn’t have my control today,” Ramsey said. “Just a couple bad pitches, hit some people. That’s it.”

The UNCW bullpen was solid in relief, however, giving up only one run in over seven innings of work. Jared Gessell in particular threw the ball well. He pitched his longest relief appearance of the year, throwing three scoreless innings and only giving up two hits.

“The biggest thing with Jared is he has to know he doesn’t have to be lights out every time,” associate head coach Randy Hood said. “He has tremendous stuff, and I think he is going to be a key part of the bullpen going forward.”

Sean Carley provided West Virginia with a quality start, pitching six innings and giving up only three runs. Carley remains undefeated on the year and improved his record to 4-0.  

UNCW had plenty of opportunities to score runs but failed to capitalize throughout the game. The Seahawks left seven runners on base and even had two runners thrown out at home trying to score. In both instances the plays at the plate resulted in the final out of the inning.

“The guys know I’m going to be aggressive on sending guys home with two outs, and that won’t change,” Hood said. “I thought that we couldn’t wait with two outs and we took some chances sending runners home.”

Seahawk first baseman Corey Dick saw his 16-game hitting streak come to an end going 0-4 at the plate. It was his first hitless game since February 22.

Nick Monroe will start on the hill for UNCW tomorrow when they face West Virginia in the rubber match. The game will start at 11:00 due to expected rain Sunday afternoon. The Seahawks will look to win their first series of the season and gain some momentum before their conference play begins next weekend.

“I think we’re very close,” Hood said. “We are just a couple of things away from everything starting to click and I think very soon we will start playing Seahawk baseball again.”