Charleston Southern rallies past UNC Wilmington in baseball, 7-6

Charleston Southern’s Zack Hagaman stemmed the damage by UNC Wilmington in the top of the ninth with two strikeouts in relief, then scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the inning to rally the Buccaneers to a 7-6 win on Wednesday at CSU Ballpark.

UNC Wilmington took a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth before Hagaman entered and pitched out of a jam to minimize the damage. In the bottom of the inning, Hagaman led off with a double into the right-field corner. After a walk to Bobby Ison, Hagaman would score on a squeeze play as Jaren Suster dropped a perfect bunt single up the first base side off Seahawks reliever Ricky Holden. After a walk by John Faircloth loaded the bases, Ison scored the game-winning run when Alex Tomasovich was hit by a pitch to score a run for the second time in the game.

Hagaman helped move the Bucs to 2-0 in one-run games this season.

“Zack is a special guy, and it’s hard to be a two-way guy,” CSU coach Stuart Lake said. “He has the makeup to (play both way). He came up big for us today.”

The Seahawks jumped to an early 4-0 lead and finished with four home runs, including two by Michael Bass.

The Bucs settled down behind reliever Tory Schroff, who struck out five and allowed one earned run in 41/3 innings.

The Bucs scored twice in the fourth and three in the fifth to tie the game at 5.

Ison, a former Stratford High star, had a double, three walks and two runs scored. Faircloth, Hagaman and Chase Shelton all had two hits for the Bucs, with Shelton adding an RBI single in the fifth.

CSU’s weekend series was adjusted due to rain in the forecast. The Bucs will host Marist on Saturday for a doubleheader beginning at 11:30 a.m.

Sunday’s single game is still set for 1 p.m.