The UNC Wilmington baseball team won their second game in as many nights on Wednesday, taking down Charleston Southern 10-3.

Not only did the Seahawks win the game, but senior Hunter Ridge broke the UNCW career hits record in the 7^th inning. He finished with two hits, while also adding a run and an RBI to his stat line.       

“I was very pleased with the outcome tonight,” said UNCW coach Mark Scalf. “We were kind of waning through the ball game, but we were able to get back in the game at the seventh inning. It was a pretty solid night from the beginning to the end. Our pitching staff did a really solid job as well.”

On the very first pitch, Charleston Southern second baseman, Kevin Hickey hit a single. In the first four pitches of the game, Hickey traveled four bases. He scored after UNCW’s left-handed pitcher, Christian MacDonald, threw his fourth pitch making it the first run of the game. At the bottom of the first inning, UNCW answered back with senior second baseman Michael Bass scoring off of Ridge’s 16^th RBI of the season.

UNCW changed pitchers after only two innings, switching from MacDonald to right-handed freshman Evan Phillips. Charleston Southern took the lead 2-1 off of a wild pitch from Phillips at the top of the third inning. Hunter Ridge then tied Jason Appel’s school record for most career hits at the bottom of the third with a single. Sophomore left fielder Luke Dunlap got two RBIs after Ridge’s hit. The third inning ended with the Seahawks scoring three runs to take the lead 4-2. At the bottom of the fourth, Drew Farber hit a single to bring senior right fielder Tyler Molinaro home to make the score 5-2.

Off of two straight errors, Michael Bass scored another run off of a Luis Renvill sacrifice bunt to make the score 6-2 at the bottom of the fifth. Renvill scored later in the inning off of a wild pitch from CSU pitcher Joe Pistacchio to make it 7-2 after five innings.

Hunter Ridge broke the career hits record at the bottom of the 7^th inning by hitting a single to make it 261 hits in his illustrious career. He was very humble about the record and contributed most of his success to his teammates.

“Our hitting as a team has really carried us this year,” Ridge said. “One through nine, our hitters have been tremendous and the guys that have been coming off the bench have been doing well also. The coaches have hinted about the record, but my teammates have been huge on it. It’s been a great four years that I’ve had here.”

“Hunter gives us a very consistent guy in the middle of our lineup,” Scalf added. “Our guys do a great job of putting Hunter in a position to perform well. He’s extremely important for our offense.”

At Christian Wolfe’s first appearance at bat for the game in the 7^th inning, he hit a double to make the score 9-2 UNCW (14-7). Then Drew Farber hit a single to bring in Wolfe to make the score 10-2. That made it three runs scored in the 7^th inning for the Seahawks. Farber finished the game with two hits, two RBIs and a run.

Michael Bass extended his hitting streak to 17 games after hitting a single at the bottom of the 8^th. He finished with a hit and two runs scored. Although Charleston Southern (8-14) scored a run at the top of the 9^th, the Seahawks held on for the win, 10-3. Evan Phillips got his first win as a pitcher, pitching three innings allowing only two hits and one run for the Seahawks.

Looking ahead to Friday’s game against Georgia State, pitching will be key for the Seahawks.

“We need Mat to pitch well for us and we need to play solid defensively to keep us in the game,” Scalf said. “Georgia State has a very good offensive club and we need to be deep in our pitching to see how it goes this weekend.”