Elon struggled to score early on in its Senior Day matchup against the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, losing its final regular season game 9-5. Elon finishes the regular season with a record of 24-30 and 13-14 in conference play.
The loss gave the Seahawks the series sweep as it beat Elon the two previous nights.
Elon’s season has been one of ups and downs as it kicked the season off with a rocky start, and a Coastal Athletic Association Tournament appearance seemed unlikely. However, Elon got hot in the back half of the season and entered its final regular season series winning eight of its last 11 games. Elon needed one win in the series against UNCW to clinch a spot in the CAA Tournament, but Elon clinched a spot after the University of Delaware lost to Campbell on May 16.
Elon pitcher Declan Lavelle started the game off well, getting the first two batters out quickly. But a lengthy eight-pitch at-bat against UNCW’s Tanner Thach led to a walk. Despite Lavelle getting out of the first inning hitless, balls were coming in early and often as he struggled to find the strike zone and UNCW worked up his pitching count.
Elon’s first three batters quickly got out in the opening inning, setting the tone for a low-scoring effort by Elon’s offense.
In the second inning, the Seahawks got two runners off base, one from an error and the other from a single, but Lavelle was poised to get out of the jam as he got UNCW to two outs. But the Seahawks found another gear with the added pressure of two outs, scoring five runs in the second inning. With two outs, UNCW hit a ground ball up the middle to drive one run home and advance its runners to first and third base. Another single drove in two more runs to give them a 3-0 lead. With that, Lavelle’s day was done as head coach Mike Kennedy put in pitcher Hudson Narke. Narke, however, immediately let up a hit. Thach, UNCW’s leader in batting average, hits and total bases, then blasted a double into center field to capture the early 5-0 lead.
Associate head coach Robbie Huffstetler said there wasn’t a whole lot Elon could do to prevent these singles that UNCW relied on to score. He said that despite lining up correctly and doing scouting reports on where the UNCW batters typically hit the ball, sometimes UNCW just hit to places where Elon wasn’t positioned.
“If they're getting ground ball singles, it's just out of the ordinary,” Huffstetler said. “If they're hitting them to a spot where we're not playing, that's just part of the game.”
Kennedy was not available for an interview after the game.
Redshirt junior Alex Duffey attempted to help Elon bounce back in the bottom of the second inning by battling his way to a full count and then hitting a leadoff single to right field. Senior Kenny Mallory Jr. singled soon after, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the inning for the Phoenix.
UNCW scored again in the third inning as it continued to rely on a flurry of singles to slowly and methodically advance its runners. In the next several innings, Elon closed the gap in hits as it only had two less hits going into the seventh inning but they failed to bring runners home. Going into the seventh inning, Elon was down 8-1 with its only run of the game coming from a home run over the left field wall by redshirt junior Justin Szestowicki on the first pitch of the third inning.
Elon got a few players on base in the seventh but struggled to convert hits into runs as they stranded runners and went scoreless in the inning. It went into the eighth inning down 9-1.
Huffstetler said the team being unable to convert hits into runs has been a key problem all year.
“That's been a little bit of our Achilles heel all year,” Huffstetler said. “We've done a pretty good job all year of getting guys on base, but sometimes we struggled getting hits with guys on base. I think the biggest thing is they had their best at-bats with guys on base, and we probably had our worst at-bats with our guys on base.”
The Phoenix got a spark of life in the bottom of the eighth inning as it loaded the bases thanks to a single and two consecutive walks. Szestowicki, who hit a home run earlier in the game, had the opportunity to hit a grand slam and get Elon back into the game. UNCW walked a third straight batter, however, automatically advancing an Elon runner home. The Phoenix scored two more runs in the inning after a groundout and a fielding error, closing the gap to a 9-4 lead.
In the ninth inning, Elon tried to continue the rally by starting the inning off with a walk and a single. Graduate student Will Vergantino singled through the left field to advance one runner home, but two straight outs secured the win for the Seahawks.
Elon will play May 21 in the CAA Tournament, hosted by the College of Charleston. Elon enters the tournament on a five-game losing streak. Huffstetler said that over the past five games, the team’s offensive production has fallen off.
“We just have to play a better brand of baseball,” Huffstetler said. “Hopefully going into a conference tournament where you know anyone can win the thing, it gives us guys a little kick-start, and hopefully they'll push a little better, and hopefully our bats will show back up and give us a chance offensively.”