Baseball Travels to Wilmington for CAA Series

Friday, April 5

Wilmington, N.C.

6:00 PM

College of Charleston

UNCW

4/4/2024 2:26:00 PM | Baseball

CHARLESTON, S.C. – College of Charleston baseball hits the road this weekend for a CAA series with UNC-Wilmington. Wilmington sits atop the CAA standings with a 6-0 start to conference play. The Cougars sit at 4-2 in the CAA, tied for third with William & Mary. Charleston leads the all-time series 22-21 after taking two-of-three against from the Seahawks at Patriots Point last season.

Starting Pitchers
Friday, 6:00 p.m.– RHP Jake Brink (4-1, 2.35 ERA) vs. RHP RJ Sales (5-1, 3.46 ERA)
Saturday, 4:00 p.m.– RHP Aidan Hunter (3-1, 3.18 ERA) vs. RHP Jacob Shafer (2-3, 3.82 ERA)
Sunday, 2:00 p.m.– LHP Connor Campbell (4-1, 3.34 ERA) vs. RHP Zane Taylor (2-0, 4.50)

Last Time Out
The Cougars have been swinging a hot bat over the last week with 11+ runs in three of their last four games. The offense has lifted Charleston to a four-game winning streak with a sweep of Stony Brook and a midweek, run-rule win over Georgia Southern.

The Tuesday victory over Georgia Southern saw the Cougars win the season series with the Eagles, improving to 18-9 on the year. The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Charleston answered with a four-run second inning through RBIs by Dylan Johnson, Kevin Madden and Trotter Harlan (two). The Cougars led 7-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth when Harlan drove in one before a grand slam by Cole Mathis, his third straight game with a homer, made it 12-3. Two batters later, Luke Wood hit a walk-off homer to make it a 13-3 Cougars win.

In the last five games, Charleston has seven hitters all above .300 with Avery Neaves (.450) leading the way. Mathis is hitting .421 with three homers, nine runs and seven RBI. Charleston catcher Dylan Johnson is hitting .381 and Harlan, Wood and Cole Singsank all have seven RBI over the last five.

Scouting the Seahawks
Wilmington comes into the weekend winners in eight its last ten contests, with the two defeats coming against #17 North Carolina and #14 East Carolina. The Seahawks are perfect in CAA play, sweeping Elon and North Carolina A&T. On Tuesday, Wilmington knocked off #20 Coastal Carolina 6-4 to improve to 18-11 on the season.

The Seahawk pitching staff is led by junior RJ Sales. Sales is 5-1 on the year with a 3.46 ERA in seven starts. He has 41 strikeouts in as many innings, with opposing hitters batting only .160 against him. Jacob Shafer (2-3) and Zane Taylor (2-0) are the other scheduled starters for the weekend.

The Wilmington bats are led by sophomore two-way player Tanner Thach. Thach leads the team with a .348 average and 15 homers. He has ten multi-hit games and three multi-homer games on the season. Against A&T, Thach went 7-for-15 with two homers, five RBI and five runs. Trevor Marsh (.330) and Alec DeMartino (.306) are the other Seahawks hitting over .300.