Seahawk Pitching Dominant in Sweep
UNCW starters had their best weekend of the season
Box Scores: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
No late-game rallies, little stress and even less drama.
Ace Landen Roupp set the tone on Friday night, then one UNCW pitcher after another took the mound and dominated their way to a three-game sweep of Appalachian State, with a 7-1 victory on Sunday putting the bow on a nearly-flawless weekend for the Seahawks.
UNCW trailed once in the series — 1-0 for one inning on Friday — then never looked back, taking first-inning leads on Saturday and Sunday that were never truly in doubt.
One week after a series vs. Cincinnati that saw wild momentum swings, the Seahawks took control and played their most complete series to wrap up the first month of the season at 10-3.
Here’s what we learned over the weekend at Brooks Field:
Top Series Hitters: Brooks Baldwin (5-12, HR, 3B, 5 RBI, 2 SB), Kip Brandenburg (5-11, HR, 3 2B, 2 RBI); Taber Mongero (3-8, RBI), Noah Bridges (2-10, 4 R, 3 SB, 2 BB),
Top Series Pitchers: Pretty much everyone! More on that later.
Roupp Leads the Starting Group
There was no doubt on Friday night as to why Roupp (1-2) was the league’s preseason player of the year.
After giving up 11 runs in 9.1 runs in his previous two starts on a total of 190 pitches, Roupp was both effective and efficient against the Mountaineers, giving up one run on five hits with eight strikeouts and three walks in seven innings on Friday night, finishing with 102 pitches.
“I struggled the first three starts; really didn’t give our team any chance to win and I feel like i came out tonight and just commanded my fastball, which is what helped me get through the lineup more,” Roupp said on Friday night. “Our defense played really good behind me and we put some at-bats together.”
Roupp said he was pulling off balls and wasn’t strong enough on the front side in his first three starts, but made a minor adjustment in his Tuesday bullpen session. With more confidence in his fastball, his breaking pitches were more effective and the rest is history.
That performance seemed to rub off on his fellow starters, as Luke Gesell (2-0) followed him with a seven-inning outing on Saturday, allowing one run on six hits with five strikeouts and zero walks.
Freshman Ryan Calvert was solid, too, allowing one hit in 2.2 innings of work, but ran into trouble after getting two outs in the second and third innings — allowing one hit, walking three and hitting a batter.
In all, starters allowed two runs on 12 hits while striking out 17 and walking seven in 16.2 innings.
Trickle Down
When you starters are eating up innings like that, it makes for a more even weekend in the bullpen where the Seahawks were twice able to go to the bullpen for a setup man and a closer.
Friday, Hunter Hodges and Adam Smith finished it with two perfect innings, and on Saturday, Breydan Gorham got two outs vs. his former team before Bryce Cota needed just 10 pitches for the four-out save.
Sunday, UNCW used eight pitchers out of the pen for 6.1 innings — including Gage Herring’s first appearance of the season.
In all, 11 Seahawk relievers worked 10.1 innings in the series, allowing one run on five hits with eight strikeouts and four walks.
Backing Them Up
Hood made a point to recognize the defense, which didn’t commit a single error in the series.
“I just thought our pitching and defense was outstanding, especially our infield defense was unbelievable all weekend,” he said. “Guys made a lot of plays; it’s a good comfort blanket for our pitching staff to know if they’ll fill the zone up, our guys will be behind them to make plays.”
In all, the defense handled 29 ground outs with Jac Croom racking up 10 assists while Cole Weiss (8) and Taber Mongero (7) made a few highlight plays.
Baldenburg
One month into the season, a couple of Seahawks at the top of the order are establishing themselves as the top offensive threats in the league.
Kip Brandenburg extended his hitting streak to 15 games and pushed his batting average to .408, lowering his strikeout rate to 18.3 percent. In the shortened 2020 season, Brandenburg hit .196 and struck out 27.4 percent of the time.
It didn’t take a major adjustment — just a little more patience.
“Honestly, I’m just trying to get a good pitch to hit, be more elective and not trying to do too much,” he said. “Get the bat head there, put a good swing on it and bring the next guy to the plate.”
Baldwin, meanwhile, has seven multi-hit games this season and pushed his hit his team-best fifth homer of the season on Saturday. In all, he’s hitting .316 and also leads the team in runs (15), triples (3), RBI (13) and slugging (.719) while second on the roster with four stolen bases.’
The sophomore outfielder appreciates his role as the leadoff man.
“I try to get things going for the whole team,” he said. “Usually, it puts a little fire up under us when the leadoff guy gets on to start the game.”
At the Quarter Pole
The Seahawks have played just over 25 percent of their scheduled games (48) and lead the CAA in winning percentage by a wide margin.
Looking back at the first four weekends, Hood said maybe one of the tight Cincinnati losses goes UNCW’s way, but otherwise, things are on schedule.
“I think we’re kind of right where we’ should be at based on how we’ve played,” he said.
Both at the plate and on the mound, the top returners have established themselves, but Hood is looking for a few more guys to step forward and deliver consistently.
“We’ve got to get our starting pitchers on that third and fourth day, especially midweek games, have got to go out and give us some quality innings,” he said. “Offensively, we’ve just got to continue to do better job up and down the lineup.”
As a team, UNCW is hitting .268 with an on-base percentage of .371 and slugging .422.
The pitching staff has an ERA of 4.15 with 115 strikeouts and 50 walks (2.3 K/BB ratio) with a WHIP of 1.31.
Feel the Thorburn
Chris Thorburn has made six of his eight appearances off the bench this season, and every time, he seems to make the most of his chance.
Locked in a 2-1 duel on Saturday night, Hood called his number to pinch hit for Ronald Evans and the sophomore outfielder poked a single through to bring Dillon Lifrieri home, and then in the eighth, Thorburn doubled to score Noah Bridges to make it 4-1.
Against VCU, it was Thorburn who drew the walk-off walk to win the season-opener, then in the final game of the series, he singled to bring in a run after VCU had gone up 3-1 in the top of the inning.
In the second game against Western Carolina, Thorburn had a fly ball to centerfield that dropped in on an error to score the go-ahead run, and in the come-from-behind win over Cincinnati, he led off the seventh with a single to help start UNCW’s big rally.
Up Next
UNCW plays its first midweek game of the season, welcoming East Carolina to Brooks Field.
Ranked No. 14 in the Baseball America Top 25, the Pirates have won seven straight games and stand at 13-2 with two wins over Duke and sweeps against Appalachian State, Charlotte and Rhode Island. Opponents are hitting .225 against ECU pitchers, with a staff ERA of 3.12.
This will be the only meeting between the rivals this season, and a big opportunity for the Seahawks to get a marquee win on their NCAA Tournament resume.