Box Score

ELON, N.C. -- The Elon Phoenix found itself in a 3-0 hole, but scored the next five runs of the game and held off a UNC Wilmington squad that never gave up to claim a 5-4 victory on Tuesday night.

After surrendering three runs to UNCW (12-12) in the top of the fourth inning on RBI by Jake Koenig, Corey Dick and Michael Bass, the Phoenix rallied for three runs of its own in the bottom half.  Niko Fraser started things off with a walk before a Sebastian Gomez single put two aboard.  Alex Swim's single, which extended his hitting streak to 19 games, drove home the first Elon run.  With the bases loaded, Jake Luce grounded out to first, but Gomez's slide at home knocked the ball away and both he and Swim scored as the maroon and gold knotted the game at three.

Elon (15-11) took the lead for good in the fifth when Chris Bresnahan scored from second on a Fraser single.  The Phoenix tacked on its fifth run in the sixth on Garrett Koster's team-leading sixth homer of the year.

The Seahawks closed their deficit back to one in the seventh when Tyler Molinaro homered to right.

UNCW threatened in both the eighth and ninth innings, but failed to score.  In the eighth, Thomas Pope led off with a double before John Antonelli made a diving catch on a popped up sacrifice bunt attempt.  He then retired the next hitter on a pop-up to second before eventually ending the inning with a grounder to third.  With one out in the ninth, Molinaro doubled to right and went to third on a ground out only to be stranded when Andrew MacDonald got Hunter Ridge to ground to first.

Sophomore lefty Ryan Pennell (1-0) earned the first win of his career after he allowed one run on one hit in three relief innings.  MacDonald picked up his second save by recording the final out.  Starter Jim Stokes gave up three runs on six hits in four innings.

UNCW's Tom Timoney (0-1) was the losing pitcher as he was charged with one run on two hits in 1.1 innings.

Both teams had nine hits.  The lone Phoenix batter to have a multi-hit night was Bresnahan who went 2-for-3.

Elon will head to Birmingham, Ala., for another important Southern Conference series this weekend as the Phoenix will visit the Samford Bulldogs.  The series gets underway at 7 p.m. Eastern on Friday.