Wingate, N.C - The Golden Eagles' Pitching showed prestige, but their offense was mostly dormant which led the way to 1-2 series against Wingate in the first road trip of their 2020 campaign. 
 
The Basics  
Game 1 Score: UC: 0 , WU: 6 
Game 2 Score: UC: 2 , WU: 1 
Game 3 Score: UC: 1 , WU: 6 
Location: Ron Christopher Stadium – Wingate N.C.  
Records: Charleston (2-2, 0-0 MEC)  Wingate (6-3, 0-0 Conf.) 
 
How it Happened 
 
Game 1: 
The Golden Eagles opened their first away series of the 2020 season with a 0-6 loss against Wingate University. UC struggled to get their bats going in the ballgame. Wingate scored to open the game and continued to build upon their lead across this 9-inning contest. 
Austin Henrich made his Senior debut and showed positive signs in this showing after shaking off the rust in the first inning and got himself into a groove. Henrich opened the ballgame on fire striking out the first two Wingate batters, but back-to-back doubles from the Bulldogs put them on the board early with a 1-0 lead.  
 
A theme in this ballgame for the Golden Eagles offense was great leadoff batting, but an inability to drive home baserunners. In both the 1st and 2nd innings the Golden Eagles leadoff batters would kick the inning off with doubles. UC failed to string any timely hits together to score either of the leadoff baserunners.  
The 3rd inning of the ballgame was a potentially crucial turning point for the Golden Eagles as they left the bases loaded and were unable to take advantage of such an opportunity to get on the board. With two outs, Justin Robles stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and struck out swinging. 
 
After allowing 1 run in the first inning, Henrich found his groove and pitched four straight shutout innings, accumulating three strikeouts during that time. However, the sixth inning turned out to be a struggle as Wingate started the inning off with a double to left field followed by an RBI-triple to right-center and later scored another run off of a sacrifice fly to right field.  
Austin Henrich would exit the ballgame after 6.2 innings pitched, allowing 3 runs off 5 hits and 1 walk. The positive takeaway is that he was able to strikeout 7 Wingate batters while allowing only one walk. 
 
Relieving Henrich was Senior Robert Fultineer. Fultineer started off strong striking out the first and only batter he faced in the seventh. However, the eighth inning was a struggle as he allowed 3 runs off a homer down the right-field line by Wingate batter Hunter Dula.  

Wingate would hold on to the lead to defeat UC in game one of the series with a final score of 0-6. 

Game 2: 
 
The Golden Eagles tied up the series in game 2 versus Wingate with a low scoring 2-1 victory. Junior transfer Logan Campbell made his UC debut and pitched a strong 5 innings. 
 
Through 3 innings, nobody was able to get on the board as neither team was able to get a single hit off the opposing pitcher. That changed in the fourth with the Golden Eagles striking first and scoring both of their only two runs. The inning started off with a bang from Jordan Bailey as he launched a home run that kickstarted the Golden Eagles dormant offense. Colby Johnson followed that up by getting on base with a single, stealing second, advancing to third on a groundout by Jesse Elliott and finally crossing home plate on a groundout to SS by Hayden Cartt. 
 
Through 5 innings, Campbell only allowed one hit and one earned run while notching four strikeouts. The only negative from Campbell's performance was the 5 walks he allowed. He pitched 4 shutout innings before allowing Wingate to score it's only run off a sacrifice fly to center field.  
 
After Logan Campbell's stellar 5 inning performance, Jacob Kaiser came in to carry the torch. Kaiser pitched the last 4 innings of the ballgame allowing only 2 hits in his outing. He was also able to add a strikeout to his stat line to round out his performance. 
 with a final score of 2-1.  
 
Game 3: 
 
In the final game of this series, the Golden Eagles were defeated by Wingate 1-6 in a ballgame that was in favor of the Golden Eagles until a controversial no tag call switched momentum to Wingate's side.  
 
The Golden Eagles struck first in this ballgame. In the second inning,Drew Hefner hit a shot over the right-field wall to give UC an early 1-0 lead. That proved to be the only run UC would put on the board. The Golden Eagles out-hit Wingate with 7 hits compared to their 5 but were unable to drive baserunners in. 
 
The Golden Eagles had the momentum until the top of the fifth inning. Sophomore Braxton Boddorf led the inning off with an infield single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. This sequence showed great promise as UC had a man on second with nobody out. Momentum changed in this ballgame when a controversial call was made that Boddorf did not properly tag up on a deep fly ball to right field off the bat of Kyle Keenan. This led to there being 2 outs and no runners on base rather than 1 out and with a man on third.  The Golden Eagles would go scoreless throughout the rest of the ballgame. 
 
Seth Nightingale made his 2020 debut on the mound. He pitched 4 straight shutout innings before allowing two earned runs. He was taken out of the game in the fifth inning. Through 4.1 innings, Nightingale surrendered only 3 hits, no walks and notched 4 strikeouts.
  
Heading into the sixth inning, UC trailed 2-1 but then the game would be put out of reach. Wingate would go on to put up two runs in the sixth against reliever Robert Fultineer and two more runs subsequently in the seventh inning against reliever Hunter Townsend. This would be the end of the scoring as the final score tallied 1-6 in favor of Wingate.  
UC would end up losing the series to Wingate 1-2. They will look to bounce back next weekend at home against Ashland University. 
 
Head Coach Britt's Take on the Series 
"I thought we played three extremely competitive games against a really good team. The separator was a couple of plays in each game. There were some bright spots this weekend: winning for the first time against Wingate in the last 6 years was a good accomplishment for our players and I felt like we pitched it extremely well in all three games. With that said, we have to continue executing better offensively and defensively to reach our true potential. Excited to get back on the training field this week and start preparing for a really good Ashland team," said coach Britt. 
 
 
Next Up 
The Golden Eagles will be playing at home once again against the Ashland University Eagles. This will be the first games of the season for Ashland. This will be a three-game series with two games being played on Saturday at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. with the last game being played on Sunday at 1 p.m.