Charleston, S.C.- The Elon Phoenix (27-16, 15-8 CAA) came out on top of a back-and-forth battle with the College of Charleston (27-16, 13-8 CAA) on Sunday afternoon. In a game that featured three lead changes from the final four innings of play, the ballgame was an instant classic that saw the Phoenix prevail, 10-9.
 
Justin Cassella continued his monstrous two-week stretch. Over the last 14 days, Cassella has homered seven times including two in the Sunday. The Sunday homers give Cassella 12 on the season, tops on the Phoenix and his nine homers in conference play lead the CAA.
 
Liam Dabagian snatched his second win of the series, and the victory gives the lefty five wins on the season. Dabagian becomes the third Phoenix to reach the five-win plateau this season following Justin Mitrovich and Shea Sprague.  
 
Elon now stands third in the CAA and possesses the tiebreaker over the College of Charleston.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 

• Charleston got off to another quick start, this time putting up two runs in the bottom of the first to take the early lead.
• The Phoenix responded immediately in the top of the second. Following a Cole Reynolds hit by pitch, Justin Cassella would foul off five pitches in an eight-pitch stretch, to ultimately hit a bomb over the batter's eye in center field to even the score at two.
• Ryan Sprock would settle in during the second inning, retiring the Cougars 1-2-3 in the frame.
• Elon would collect two hits in the top of the third but could not produce any runs despite singles from James Broderick and Luke Stephenson.
• The Cougars would pounce on Sprock in the bottom of the third. Leadoff man Joseph Mershon would single to begin the inning, then JT Marr would launch a home run over the right field wall to gives Charleston their two-run advantage back.
• Joe Savino would step in to replace Sprock but the Cougar offense would continue to use the long ball. Still in the bottom of the third, Luke Wood homered to center field to push the lead to three.
• Charlie Granatell would get one of those runs back in the top of the fourth following an RBI single up the middle.
• Savino would begin to make quick work of the Cougars in the fourth and fifth frames, retiring six straight Cougar batters during the middle innings.
• The Phoenix would again use the long ball as Justin Cassella launched his second homer of the day in the windy conditions of Patriots Point to tie the score after Cole Reynolds walked in his previous at-bat.
• Kenny Mallory Jr. would walk later in the frame and swipe second to put another runner in scoring position for Elon. James Broderick continued his hot series with an RBI single to give the Phoenix their first lead of the day.
• Following a single and walk from the Cougars, Joe Savino dug deep to strike out pinch hitter, Ben Hamacher to retire Charleston in the sixth.
• The Cougar offense would come back to life in the bottom of the seventh inning. With two runners in scoring position and no outs, Cole Mathis doubled down the left field line to score both runners, giving Charleston their lead back. Following a single and a hit by pitch, Liam Dabagian would emerge from the bullpen trying to get the Phoenix out of the jam. Dabagian allowed one sacrifice fly, but then made quick work of his next two batters to limit the damage.
• The Phoenix would respond in the top of the eighth. A single by Tanner Holliman and a walk from Kenny Mallory Jr. would put two runners on for Charlie Granatell. Following a groundout that would advance the runners, James Broderick would pick up his second RBI of the day on a sacrifice fly to bring the Charleston lead to one.
• Connor Coolahan would hit a sharp ground ball up the middle which forced second baseman Joseph Mershon into a throwing error, allowing Mallory Jr. to score from second and tie the ballgame.
• Coolahan would swipe second and after Ryan Sprock was hit by a pitch, Luke Stephenson would collect the games signature hit with a double into the left center field gap scoring Coolahan from second and Sprock from first.
• Charleston and Elon would go quickly in their next frames setting up the bottom of the ninth inning.
• Cole Mathis led off the inning with a single and following a Noah Carter hit-by-pitch the winning run was now at the plate. Trotter Harlan and Luke Wood would be retired, but veteran short stop Cam Dean would come to the plate with two down and two on. Dean hit a long flyball to right that just missed getting over the fence by a few feet but would stay in the yard. A run would score leaving runners on second and third with two outs and the tying run 90 feet from home.
• Dabagian faced fellow lefty Tyler Sorrentino and forced him into a weak groundout to first to end the ballgame and the Phoenix would take the game and the series at Patriots Point.

 
NOTES AND STATS
 

• The Phoenix have now won three straight weekend series at Patriots Point and five of the last six series overall.  
• The Phoenix scored 10 runs in game three against the Cougars marking this the first time for Elon scoring in the double-digits since Elon's matchup with Stony Brook where the Phoenix put up 18 runs on the Sea Wolves.
• This is the sixth time this season that Elon has scored 10 or more runs on the road. Elon continues to have success away from Latham Park as the Phoenix now have a record of 11-6 on the road.
• The 10 runs given up by Charleston are the most they have given up in conference play since Delaware scored 18 runs against the Cougars at a game in Newark earlier this month.
• This is also Charleston's first weekend series loss since that series with the Blue Hens. Sunday's loss for Charleston also secured the Cougars just their second home series loss of the season.
• Coming into the series with the Phoenix the Cougars were nearly perfect when leading after seven innings. Charleston was 21-1 in games where they had led after seven innings, but in both Elon wins, the Phoenix trailed after seven innings.
• Justin Cassella's two homers mark the second time this season he has homered twice in a game. This also gives Cassella seven home runs in his last eight games. His twelve are a career high for a season and he now has 20 home runs during his Phoenix career. Cassella now leads the CAA for HR in conference play with nine and also leads the CAA in slugging percentage during CAA play.
• Luke Stephenson delivered a clutch hit in the top of the eighth to give the Phoenix a two-run lead. The double was Luke's 12^th on the season, a new season best for Stephenson as a member of the Phoenix. His 12 doubles also leads this year's team with Charlie Granatell in second.
• James Broderick finished the series against Charleston 4-for-11 at the plate with three RBI. This makes back-to-back CAA weekend series where Broderick has contributed four hits.
• Cole Reynolds continues to hit to all fields and is continuing to reach base effectively. Reynolds finished the week batting .400 with an on-base percentage of .550. Reynolds delivered six hits during the week and has reached base in 35 of his last 36 games.
• Liam Dabagian picked up his second win of the series and fifth win of the season. The lefty pitched a full three innings against the Cougars on Sunday, striking out two and walking none.
• Joe Savino continues to pile up the strikeouts. Savino picked up five more strikeouts in 3.2 innings of work against the Cougars.
• Kenny Mallory Jr. started every game in the series against the Cougars and found his way on base throughout the series. In the series finale, Mallory Jr. scored a season high three runs which is also a career high.

 
 
UP NEXT
 

• The Phoenix will continue their road trip by visiting the Campbell Fighting Camels on Wednesday. This will be a rematch between the two as Elon won the first matchup over the top-10 Camels by the score of 6-5. Elon will then travel to Navy for a non-conference weekend series with the Midshipmen.