LEXINGTON, Va. – VMI received a complete game effort from senior RHP Andrew Woods and the offense backed him with plenty of run support as the Keydets downed UNCG 8-2 to clinch at Southern Conference series Saturday evening at Gray-Minor Stadium.

The Spartans drop to 21-24 overall and 11-12 in SoCon play while VMI improves to 17-26 and 10-10. UNCG fell from fourth to seventh in the league standings with the setback.

Woods allowed just two runs on seven hits with nine strikeouts and a walk as he improved his record to 6-1. Freshman RHP Andrew Wantz was saddled with the loss surrendering five runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings of work. He struck out two in the contest.

Senior Eric Kalbfleisch led the offensive charge for the Blue and Gold with three hits in four at bats. He and classmate Aaron Wright stretched their hitting streaks to 12 games apiece. Junior Collin Woody drove in two runs and recorded two hits. The Keydets had seven players go for multiple hits as they racked up 15 as a team.

Ray Lopez led off the bottom of the first with a single through the right side and moved to second on a balk. A deep fly ball out to right field moved Lopez to third before David Geary hit a two-run home run to left center to put VMI up 2-0. Collin Fleischer doubled to center later in the inning and advanced to third on a passed ball but was stranded there after Will Connerley grounded out to short. The Keydets added to their lead in the bottom of the third via a Matt Winn sacrifice fly.

After Wright took a pitch to the leg to begin the top of the fourth, Woody laid into a 0-1 offering and cranked it over the left field fence to pull the Spartans within 3-2. The momentum was short lived however as a Connerley solo homer and a Lopez RBI single pushed the home team's lead back to three runs at 5-2.

VMI kept the UNCG offense at bay over the final innings while scoring once in the seventh and twice in the eighth to account for the final margin.

The Spartans will wrap up their SoCon regular season schedule with the series finale Sunday at 2 p.m.

Keep up with the UNCG baseball team all year long by logging on to www.uncgspartans.com and following the Spartans' official Twitter accounts @UNCGBaseball/@uncgsports.