The UNC Wilmington baseball team broke out of its team-wide slump today as the Seahawks banged out 14 hits to beat James Madison, 10-7, at Brooks Field. Senior Andrew Cain and junior Thomas Pope led the offensive outburst with four and three hits, respectively.

Heading into Friday’s game, UNCW ranked last in the CAA in batting average (.228), on-base percentage (.308) and runs scored (43).

“This was a huge confidence booster,” said Cain, who had three RBI in his second career four-hit game. “All along, we’ve tried to remain confident and stay positive because we know we’re a hitting team. We just stuck with it, and now we’ve turned it around.”

The Seahawks got off to a rough start in the beginning of the game, however, as they faced a 5-0 deficit early on. But, the bats came alive in the bottom of the fourth. They scored four runs in the inning on four hits with the big blow coming from Pope, when he blasted a two-RBI triple off the wall in center field.

“Staying positive was the biggest thing at that point,” coach Mark Scalf said. “We’ve got a lot of baseball left to play this year, and we have to stay with one another. We have to continue to grind it out, and today I thought we did a great job of that.”

The triple from Pope extended his hitting streak to seven games, which are four off of his career best of 11.

“I’ve just been trying to see the ball and hit the ball hard,” said Pope who had four RBI on the day. “I’ve been trying not to think too much and just put good swings on the it.”

After the four-run fourth inning, the UNCW offensive onslaught wasn’t finished. The Seahawks scored four more runs in the fifth and never looked back from there. All but two of the Seahawk starters recorded a hit in the game.

Tyler McSwain (2-2) started for UNCW and earned the win with Jack Lane shutting the door in the last two innings to pick up his first career save.

The UNCW pitching staff locked down the top half of the James Madison lineup the entire game as the first four hitters were just 1 for 18 combined.

Game two of the series is Saturday afternoon, and UNCW will be sending redshirt sophomore Mat Batts (0-2, 1.71 ERA) to the mound to try to win the series.