Sensational opening start for UNCW in CAA Baseball Tournament

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC (UNCW) —  Luke Dunlap homered twice and tied his career-high with five runs batted in as UNCW exploded for a 16-7 win over Northeastern in game four of the Colonial Athletic Association baseball championship tournament on Thursday at Patriots Point.

The Seahawks advanced to Friday’s winner’s bracket game against the winner of Elon and top-seeded College of Charleston. First pitch will be at 1:30 p.m.

UNCW ran its record to 37-16 with its fourth straight win while the Huskies dropped to 25-29 with their third loss in the last four games.

Dunlap led an 18-hit offense for the Seahawks by going 2-for-5. Eight different hitters had multiple hit games as Zach Shields and Casey Golden collected three hits apiece. Golden also drove in three runs. Corey Dick had two hits and scored three runs.

Michael Foster and Cam Hanley had three hits each and both scored twice. Northeastern banged out seven doubles with Hanley having three of them.

UNCW red-shirt freshman Whitman Barnes (5-0) stayed undefeated on the season, picking up the win in relief. Barnes went a career-long five innings and surrendered two runs on six hits and a pair of walks. He finished with four strikeouts.

NU starter Dustin Hunt (5-5) took the loss after allowing nine runs, six earned, on 10 hits in 2.2 innings.

How it happened: UNCW scored four or more runs in three different innings and built a 9-2 lead after three innings. Dunlap highlighted a four-run second inning with an opposite field homer with a man on and Shields and Golden added two-out RBI singles to give UNCW a 4-1 lead.

Inside the box score: Northeastern got its leadoff hitter on base in 8-of-9 innings while the Seahawks did so five times … The Seahawks finished with nine two-out RBI’s … The Seahawks went 10-for-18 with two outs while NU was 2-for-11 … The Seahawk bullpen picked up the win and has a combined record of 26-10.

Notes: The last Seahawk to homer twice in a CAA tournament game was Tyler Molinaro in 2013 against Towson … Dunlap tied his career-high set just a week ago against James Madison … Terence Connelly extended his on base streak to 24 straight games … Corey Dick pushed his season-high hitting streak to seven games with a third inning single … UNCW has won all four meetings with Northeastern this season and is hitting .404 against the Huskies and has outscored them, 45-16 … Dunlap tied UNCW’s CAA record of five runs batted in … UNCW’s top four hitters in the lineup combined to go 10-for-21 with six runs scored and six knocked in … UNCW’s 10 two-out hits were a season-high.