The Coastal Carolina University baseball team (41-11, 18-2 Big South) held the University of North Carolina at Asheville (11-36, 3-17 Big South) to five hits and struck out 10 Bulldog batters in a 5-3 victory May 14 in Asheville, N.C. Coastal has now won seven straight games and 12 straight games in the Big South.

Coastal put up two runs in the first. Senior Chris Todd (Seattle, Wash./Bellevue C.C.) was hit by a pitch for the second straight game to open the first. He quickly came home on a triple from sophomore Dom Duggan (Cranberry Twp., Pa./John Carroll). With one out, junior Michael DeJesus (Manapalan, N.J./East Carolina) hit an infield single that scored Duggan.

In the fourth, the Chanticleers added another run to take a 3-0 lead. DeJesus was hit to start the frame. With one out, junior Aaron Verrett (Jupiter, Fla./Polk C.C.) singled to move DeJesus to third. He then scored on a single from freshman Tommy Baldridge (Fort Mill, S.C./Fort Mill).

The Bulldogs cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth, doing all of their damage with two outs. Tony Wall walked and moved to third on an Elliott Arrington single. Both runners scored on a double from Nathan Durham.

In the sixth, Coastal scored a run as Baldridge singled in DeJesus for his second run batted in of the game. Then in the eighth, junior Kevin Entsminger (Canton, Mich./College of the Siskiyous) laid down a safety squeeze for the second straight game, scoring DeJesus and giving the Chants a 5-2 lead.

UNC Asheville threatened in the ninth. Josh Coyle led off the inning with a double in the gap. After senior Byron Binda (Stafford, Va./North Stafford) induced Wall into a pop out, Arrington singled and a Coastal error scored Coyle to make it 5-3. Junior Mike Costanzo (Springfield, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) then came in the game and struck out Durham. John Whited hit a long fly ball to left, but Entsminger was under it to end the game.

Sophomore Andy DeLaGarza (Ossian, Ind./Norwell) struck out seven in six innings to improve his record to 4-3. He gave up only three hits and two earned runs. Binda struck out two in 2.1 innings and Costanzo earned his 12th save of the season.

Todd and DeJesus had three hits apiece for Coastal, while DeJesus scored three runs. Baldridge had two hits and drove in two. Arrington had two hits for the Bulldogs.

The loss went to Ben Buchanan, who struck out seven, but gave up nine hits and five runs.

Coastal’s defense continued its solid play, turning four double plays for the second time in four games.

The two teams will wrap up the three-game series Sunday, May 15 at 1 p.m.