UNCW secures #1 seed for CAA Baseball Tournament

NEWARK, DE (UNCW) — NEWARK, Delaware – Ryan Foster and Nick Feight tied single-season school record for wins and runs batted in, respectively, as UNCW cruised to a 12-2 win over Delaware on Thursday at Bob Hannah Stadium.

The Seahawks snapped a brief three-game losing skid with the win and raised their record to 36-14 overall and 15-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Blue Hens fell to 31-21 and 9-13 with the setback.

Foster ran his record to 12-1, tying Ronald Hill’s record set in 2004, going seven innings and allowing two runs, one earned, on five hits. He struck out four and lowered his earned run average to 2.41.

Feight finished with two hits, including his 18th home run of the season, coming in the ninth inning with two runners on. Those three RBI’s gave him 82 and tied him with Mark Carver, who set the mark in 2008.

Steven Linkous, Gavin Stupienski and Robbie Thorburn each added two hits while Brian Mims and Daniel Stack homered.

Jordan Glover, who belted his fifth home run of the season, had two hits for UD.

Starter Ron Marinaccio (7-4) took the loss, allowing five runs, three earned, while striking out seven over 6.2 innings.

Up next: The series concludes with a noon doubleheader on Friday. Whitman Barnes (2-1) will make the start in game one and Cory Gantz (4-0) will start the regular season finale.

Home Runs: UNCW – Mims (off Marinaccio in the sixth inning, leadoff), Stack (off FitzPatrick in the eighth, grand slam, one out), Feight (off Flowers in the ninth, two on, one out); Delaware – Glover (off Foster in the sixth inning, none on, one out)

How it happened: UNCW lead from the first inning with RBI’s from Stupienski on a sac fly and a RBI single for Golden. The Seahawks broke open a 5-2 game on Stack’s grand slam in the eighth for a 9-2 lead.

Inside the box score: Five of UNCW’s hits went for extra bases … UNCW pitching held UD’s top-three hitters in the lineup hitless, going 0-for-10 … The Seahawks also held UD hitless (0-13) with runners in scoring position … Linkous and Mims both leadoff two innings by reaching safely as UNCW landed leadoff hitters on base safely in six innings … Foster held UD hitless with runners on base (0-11) and allowed one two-out hit.

Notes: UNCW is now 20-1 when homering at least twice in a game and is 22-1 when scoring 10+ runs … Foster earned his seventh consecutive start and owns a 22-5 career record … UNCW is now 7-11 on the road … In 31 seasons, UNCW has a 396-254-1 record during CAA regular season play … With 29 steals, Linkous is one short of tying his career high set last season … Robbie Thorburn collected his 18th stolen base and his fifth triple of the season.