PEMBROKE — It’s the middle of April and The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has yet to lose a baseball game this month.
Despite soggy conditions and a hour rain delay, the scorching Braves continued their streak on the diamond Tuesday, cruising to a 6-2 victory over St. Andrews at Sammy Cox Field.
The Braves (32-13, 10-10 PBC) have won 10 straight games, a feat that includes conference sweeps of Georgia Southwestern and Lander on the road. UNCP lighted the scoreboard for four runs in the second inning against the Knights and never looked back after strong outings from Tyler Wood and Josh Bagley.
“These guys are playing pretty daggum good,” UNCP coach Paul O’Neil said after his team’s fourth win over St. Andrews. “We’ve been winning on pitching and defense.”
Wood started on the mound for the Braves and pitched four scoreless innings before being replaced by Bagley in the fifth. Bagley picked up the victory and relieved Wood after a rain and lightning delay forced O’Neil to make a pitching change.
“Tyler mowed those guys down early,” O’Neil said. “Unfortunately we couldn’t leave him in after the rain delay. Bagley came in and pitched just as well for us the rest of the game.”
Braves’ outfielder Kevin Dietrich extended his hitting streak to a career-best 15 games with a triple to the right center gap in the seventh inning. Derek Funk triggered UNCP’s four-run second inning with a two-run double to center with two outs.
Starting pitching has been the main ingredient during the successful stretch for the Braves, including shutout starts from Matt McGovern (6-0, 2.82 ERA) and Brian Willis (4-2, 3.91) against Lander last weekend.
McGovern was named the PBC Pitcher-of-the-Week after throwing a complete game shutout versus the Bearcats on April 10.
“McGovern pitched a heckuva game over the weekend and Willis did a good job of keeping hitters off-balance,” O’Neil said. “Compared to other good team’s we have had at UNCP, these guys make the routine plays efficiently. We may not have all the offense, but this team wins on defense and pitching.”
St. Andrews (6-34) pushed across two runs in the eighth on Matthew Bolden’s pinch-hit two-run homerun to left off Bagley.
Former UNCP punter Andrew Mudd (1-2) suffered the loss for the Knights after allowing four runs on five hits in three innings of work.
UNCP returns to the diamond Thursday with a 6 p.m. contest at Catawba (24-13). Jake Dailey gets the start on the mound for the Braves and will be vying for his fourth win in seven starts this season.