UNCW Seahawks earn spot in championship game of CAA baseball tourney

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC (UNCW) — UNCW pitchers combined to limit Charleston to a run on two hits and Steven Linkous banged out four hits of his own as the Seahawks advanced to the Colonial Athletic Association championship game on Saturday with a 6-1 win over CofC on Friday.

UNCW advances to the championship game for the second straight season and upped its record to 39-15 with the win. UNCW will face WIlliam & Mary in the double elimination tournament. William & Mary already has one loss.

Alex Royalty (8-2) allowed the only two hits while allowing one run on four walks over five innings before making way for the bullpen. Austin Easter followed with three innings of hitless, shutout baseball and set a season-high with five strikeouts. Jared Gesell came on in the ninth to nail down the win.

Linkous posted his second four-hit game of the season, scored twice and drove in one. Gavin Stupienski knocked in the first two runs of the game for UNCW and finished 2-for-4 at the plate. Also adding two hits games were Brian Mims and Daniel Stack.

Erven Roper and Tommy Richter had singles for CofC with Roper knocking in the only run of the game.

CofC’s Evan Sisk (1-2) went eight innings and held the Seahawks in check, but did take the loss. The lefthander allowed seven hits, walked one and struck out five.

Up next: The Seahawks advance to the championship round for the second straight season and will play on Saturday at 10 a.m. The game is slated to be aired on MeTV locally in Wilmington as well as on CAA.TV. MeTV is station 1255 on Time Warner Cable and 193 on Charter Cable. Over-the-Air will be on 10.2.

Home Runs: none

How it happened: Gavin Stupienski gave the Seahawks the lead in the third inning and they would never relinquish it. With two outs, Brian Mims doubled to centerfield and Stupienski followed with a RBI single to right one batter later for a 2-1 lead.

Inside the box score: UNCW finished with six two-out hits while CofC was 1-for-8 … The Seahawks collected four two-out RBI’s, including three in the ninth inning … Charleston was just 1-for-10 with runners on base … Alex Royalty recorded seven outs on ground balls and was aided by three doubles plays … Easter retired nine of the 11 batters he faced.

Notes: Steven Linkous scored twice to become UNCW’s single season runs leader with 72 … The Seahawks improved to 13-6 versus left-handed starters … UNCW has won 3-of-4 meetings with the Cougars in the CAA Tournament and lead the all-time series, 12-11 … Robbie Thorburn extended his team-high hitting streak to five games with a triple in the ninth inning, his sixth of the season.