WILMINGTON, N.C. – A pair of early two-run homers from Nick
Feight and Mason Berne backed a quality start from Alex Royalty and led UNC Wilmington to a 7-3 win over Longwood in the series opener Friday at Brooks Field.
Feight and Berne both
homered for the second straight game to give the Seahawks (4-8) a 4-0 lead before the end of the third inning. Royalty (2-1), a 2016 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, complemented his offense by spinning 6.2 innings of three-run ball, scattering five hits en route to the second win of his sophomore campaign.
Senior right-hander
Devin Gould (0-2) suffered the loss for the Lancers after giving up the two-run homers to
Feight and Berne as part of a 5.0-inning, four-run start. He matched a career high with seven strikeouts, fanning three over his final three innings, but left the game with a 4-2 deficit.
Jon Peterson pitched the next 2.0 innings, allowing Longwood a chance to climb back into the game.
UNC Wilmington's relief trio of Austin Easter, Austin
Magestro and Clark
Cota provided 2.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to stifle a Longwood (5-10) rally that cut the
Seahawk lead to 4-3 thanks to a two-run double from leadoff man
Sammy Miller and an RBI double from junior transfer outfielder Ryan
Shull.
Brandon Harvell also went 2-for-4 in the game as those three combined to score or drive in all three of Longwood's runs.
"Offensively the 8-9-1 hitters – Harvell, Shull, and Miller – tried to carry us, but we needed more contributions from the middle of our lineup and didn't get it," Longwood head coach
Ryan Mau said. "We got a solid outing from both Devin and Jon. [
Eric Harp] entered in a near impossible situation and got us one pitch away from a big escape. Unfortunately UNCW came up with the big hit to pull away."
Peterson was on the mound to begin the eighth inning, but allowed a pair of runners to reach, leaving the game with runners on the corners and no outs. Harp entered the game and recorded a pair of outs, but a single and three-base error allowed three runs to score on the play. Longwood committed four errors in the loss.
"We made too many defensive miscues again and our opponents did what good clubs do, which is make us pay for our mistakes," Mau said. "We have to start playing clean baseball soon as conference play is looming ahead."
Miller's two-bagger came with two outs in the top of the fifth and
Shull's with two town in the seventh, but
Magestro and
Cota extinguished that two-out magic by striking out a combined six hitters over their two innings of relief and UNCW responded with its three-run rally in the home half of the eighth inning to push the Seahawk lead back to four.
In the loss
Justin Mitchell reached on a walk in a 0-for-3 game. With the walk the junior has reached safely at least once in all 15 games the Lancers have played.
Michael Osinski finished the game 1-for-4, extending his hitting streak to seven games, the longest hit streak by a Lancer this season.
Shull finished the game 1-for-3, raising his batting average to an even .300, joining Osinski and Mitchell at or above .300 for the season.
The loss comes in the first meeting of a three-game series against UNC Wilmington, which resumes with a Saturday doubleheader that begins at 1 p.m.
Cody Wager (1-2, 9.26 ERA) and Tyler
Wirsu (0-1, 12.00) will take the mound for Longwood opposite UNC Wilmington starters Logan
Beehler (0-2, 6.75) and Luke
Gesell (0-0, 8.10).
#GoWood
