CHARLESTON, S.C. - Charleston Southern fell 12-5 in a slugfest to UNC Wilmington on Tuesday night at Nielsen Field. The two teams combined for five home runs and 17 runs.

"You cannot allow a talented team like UNCW the opportunities we did then not take advantage of the limited opportunities we had and win," said Head Coach Marc MacMillan. "We provided too many 'freebies' which in turn led to more offensive opportunities for them to score runs. And, offensively, we had two innings with a chance to put up three runs or more, and in neither case were we able to do so." 

UNCW took the lead in the first inning on back-to-back home runs from Tanner Thach and Trevor Marsh. The Bucs quickly tied the score with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Aidan McAskie was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to plate the Bucs' first run before Christian Bauman hit a sacrifice fly to deep center and tied the game.

The Seahawks retook the lead in the third inning with five runs including three off a double from Bryan Arendt. 

CSU saw back-to-back singles from BJ Banyon and Brock Kuehler to start their half of the fourth. Sam Low was hit by a pitch to load the bases before Chandler Tuupo was also hit by a pitch to bring home a run. Kuehler scored during the next at bat when Low drew a pickoff throw at second that got past the fielder and into center field.

A three-run home run from Alec DeMartino added insurance to the UNCW lead in the sixth, but Sam Low answered with a homer of his own in the bottom of the inning.

Case Stroup (3-1) got the win for UNCW with 2.2 innings where he allowed one earned run on two hits and struck out three. Brett Gastman (0-4) took the loss for CSU after 2.1 innings with three strikeouts.

Charleston Southern will play their penultimate Big South series of the 2024 season when they host Radford this weekend.