CHARLESTON – The Buccaneers claimed the weekend finale over the Runnin' Bulldogs on Sunday to clinch the series to open their conference slate. They defeated Gardner-Webb by a final score of 13-3 to run rule the visitors and have the game end after seven innings.
 
Charleston Southern jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with Nathan Martinez scoring from third on a wild pitch and Blake Edgmon sending a double to left field to score Kain Collins. Gardner-Webb scored their lone run of the day off a Matt Ilgenfritz solo home run to center and cut their deficit to 2-1.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, the Charleston Southern offense exploded as they tallied eight runs and pushed their advantage to 10-1. The Bucs had the runs score on eight different plays with their first five baserunners reaching successfully. Later in the inning, they had another string of four consecutive. Nathan Martinez had the lone multi-RBI hit of the inning and had his mark the ninth and tenth of the game.
 
In the fifth, Tuupo had a single to through the second baseman that scored Tyler Wright. After that, Alex Marot had a two RBI home run to left field to bring Tuupo home and push the score to 13-1.
 
Gardner-Webb scratched three more runs across in the sixth and the seventh to cut the lead back within single digits. Collins had a single to left field when the bases were loaded to score Reising and walk off the game.
 
As a team, Charleston Southern finished with 15 hits. Collins led the team with three hits while Tuupo, Marot, Pringle, Martinez and Edgmon all had two hits on the day. Marot had the team-high in RBIs with three with Tuupo, Martinez and Edgmon each adding two. Additionally, they drew seven walks and had six batters get hit by pitches.
 
Matt Gallant started on the mound for the Bucs and had the longest outing of any of the pitchers in the staff so far this season. He went 5.2 allowing three earned runs to go with 10 hits. Drew Dawson was the first out of the bullpen and threw 0.2 innings and was followed by Hayden Henry who threw the final 0.2.
 
Charleston Southern will be back in action this week to host Georgia Southern on Tuesday, March 24. The first pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. with the game to be available live on ESPN+. The game will mark the end of an eight-game homestand for the Buccaneers.