GREENSBORO, N.C. - After taking a loss on opening day, UNCG baseball (1-1, 0-0) delivered a convincing win over Elon (1-1 0-0) on Saturday, dropping the visiting Phoenix by a final of 8-3. While he didn't receive the decision, righty Austin Koehn delivered a quality start on the mound, hitting his spots and spraying seven hits and two runs over 6.0 innings of work. Zack Budzik, Hogan Windish and Daniel Cerda all went 2-for-4 on the day, with seven of UNCG's starting nine in the lineup recording a knock before the end of the day.

The Spartans are now 1-0 when scoring first, as the home team took a single run-lead in the third. While UNCG failed to record a hit in the inning, Windish drew the leadoff walk, before moving to third on an Elon error and a Spartan flyout, eventually scoring on Josh Madole's sac fly.

Koehn cruised through the first three innings, hitting his spots and expanding the strike zone to limit the visitors to just a single base runner before the start of the fourth. The right-hander did face the minimum through his first three frames, retiring nine Phoenix batters on just 34 pitches. Four of Elon's seven knocks against Koehn came in the fourth inning however, giving the Spartans' opponents their first lead of the night in the top half of the fourth.

With Koehn retiring from the game after the sixth and the score reading 2-1 in favor of the visitors, the redshirt-sophomore was in line for the loss despite his impressive display, until the Spartan bats came alive in the home half. 

After drawing a walk and striking out in his first two at bats, Budzik used his speed to pick up his first hit of the day, pushing a bunt down the right field line to grab a leadoff single. The speedy infielder moved from first to third thanks to Dallas Callahan's first hit as a Spartan, before starting shortstop Daniel Cerda brought him home to even things at two apiece.

After surrendering another go ahead run at the top of the seventh, the UNCG batters responded once again, this time setting up Budzik for his own RBI opportunity. A leadoff double from Greg Hardison, a Madole walk and a Pres Cavenaugh single loaded the bases for Budzik who responded with a two-RBI single to the outfield. He would go on to steal second before advancing to third on the Elon throwing error, scoring on a wild pitch to make it 5-2.

Following a debut in which you collect two hits, two walks and two RBI can bring high expectations for the rest of the season, but so far center fielder Corey Rosier is living up to the hype. The Chipola transfer swung at the first pitch he saw at the start of the eighth inning, stroking a pitch off the right field scoreboard for the Spartans' first homer of 2021 and his third knock in blue and gold.

Not to be outdone, Windish followed up his second hit of the contest and the second triple of his young career, coming home on a Hardison sac fly. After a walk from Spencer Smith, Coleman Sawyer pinch ran and used his own set of wheels to put up the Spartans' third of the frame. The redshirt-junior scored from second on a Cavenaugh single, after stealing second, giving the home side back-to-back three-run innings and what proved to be the final score of 8-3.

Brandon Stephens closed out the night, converting his first save opportunity of 2021. Striking out a pair in the eighth, Stephens was faced with adversity in the final frame, loading the bases before recording a single out. The experience of the right-hander showed through however, going on to force a flyout and clinching the win on back-to-back strikeouts. 

>> The Spartans stole four bases on four attempts on Saturday, giving the side seven swiped bags for 2021 already. Two of those belong to Budzik
>> In his first game playing as a Spartan, transfer Dallas Callahan went 1-for-1 at the plate while drawing a game-high three walks. He is one of four UNCG players to get a stolen bag in game two of the current series
>> Drawing 14 walks over two contests, the Spartans are getting on base at a clip of .391 so far this year. Every Spartan to make a plate appearance on Saturday reached safely

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