I love doing research on the UNC Wilmington baseball team.

I really do. It’s like putting on your North Face for the first time in four months and finding 10 dollars in the pocket or literally any “buy-one-get-one-free” bargain; you just end up happier than you thought you would.  This Seahawk baseball squad, currently ranked No. 25 in the nation, is obviously good.

Bad teams don’t draw in an average of 1,200 paid attendees per game- especially in a relatively small, drive-through college town without a football team. UNCW places as one of only three non-BCS teams in the top 45 nationally in attendance, currently ranked 41^st. One-hundred eighty Division 1 baseball teams bring in fewer fans than UNCW.

Cover enough UNCW sporting events and you’ll find out just how much smoke and mirrors you usually need to find a silver lining. Pouring through pages of box scores looking for a positive statistic might well be the “hazing” for new Seahawk writers, and just an irritating hour that you could have used to watch Game of Thrones (how about that last episode?!?!) for those who have been around for a while. Unnecessary anecdotes aside, the point I’m trying to make is that this strenuous searching isn’t a problem when you look at the baseball team’s stats.

This team can ball. I feel comfortable using that expression; one that is usually reserved to talking about basketball teams, when UNCW’s basketball team went 10-20. They’re really good. They currently own a 32-13 record; one of only 16 D1 teams in the country with 30+ wins already. They have lost only four CAA games all year. For the first time in five years, they swept their season series with ECU, a team that I personally think of as UNCW’s biggest rivals, in any sport.

Not sure where this amount of success is coming from? Here are a few thoughts on the good and the bad, and why the thought of UNCW playing in Omaha may not be so far-fetched anymore.

1.      Michael Bass is a stud. This team runs through him. A quick peak into the impressively thorough UNCW Baseball Stat database will show you that. Bass leads the ‘Hawks in close to every offensive category. Finding a most impressive stat was almost impossible. He’s hitting .431 on the season, 31 points higher than the next best hitter. He leads the Seahawks in Slugging %, (.628) On-Base %, (.518) as well as runs scored, hits and total bases. He also leads UNCW with steals, swiping 19 bases so far. The next closest? OF Steven Linkous, who has 4. He hit safely in 26 straight games at one point this season. His Wins-Above-Replacement, (WAR) sits at 1.3, the second best on the team. To put that in perspective, Washington Nationals OF Bryce Harper currently has a 1.4 WAR, 2^nd best in baseball.

2.      Their pitching. Groundbreaking baseball analysis, I know. Who would ever think to link great pitching to a successful record? And to think I do this for free. UNCW’s collective ERA is 3.30, 2^nd best in the CAA. They’ve struck out 312 batters so far, 27 more than the next best team, Delaware. The Seahawks stellar 1-2 top of the rotation pairing has played outstanding all season, with Mat Bats leading the CAA in K’s and Jordan Ramsey having the lowest ERA in the CAA. (1.63) UNCW will need both to continue producing at that level, especially when it gets to Regional and (hopefully) Super-Regional time.

3.      SS Terrence Connelly is quite the mystery. The freshman out of New York has been holding his own this year in the starting role, hitting .293 with 17 RBI’s. His WAR sits at 1.8, the best on the team. The red flag in Connelly’s stat line is his fielding percentage. Connelly has an abysmal .906 fielding percentage, something that a legitimate team just cannot afford from their starting shortstop. Granted, fielding percentage is a moderately outdated stat and certainly does not tell the whole story, but 16 errors in 97 attempts says enough.

4.      Home field advantage has been key this season. It’s no secret that the Seahawks enjoy playing at home, going 21-7 in the friendly confines of the pines. Can you blame them though? Stellar attendance, usually phenomenal weather and a surprisingly passionate fan base all make Brooks Field a great place to play. Scheduling has been in their favor too, as the ‘Hawks have played 28 games at home, while only playing 13 on the road. That is little cause for concern, though, as UNCW won the CAA tournament away from home last year, taking home the title on JMU’s field.

5.      Balanced hitting. Before the season started, relief pitcher Justin Livengood talked to me about how integral production from the entire lineup would be to the success of the team. Gone are the days of 3-run home runs from Andrew Cain. If you look at the standard UNCW lineup, hitters 1-6 are all hitting .268 or better. The top 3 hitters in the order are hitting .360 or better. The only everyday players that are struggling are Corey Dick, Hunter Ridge and Tyler Molinaro, who are all still middle-of-the-order caliber hitters. Molinaro needs to cut down on the strikeouts to once again become a productive hitter and Ridge; the UNCW all-time leader for career hits has been suffering an unusual year-long slump. With that said, both are still very confident seniors, as well as talented hitters. Producing when it counts has always been the best remedy to season slumps.