GREENSBORO -- Hogan Windish drove in four runs, and left-hander Jared Mathewson worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, leading UNCG to a 7-5 victory over VMI in the opening game of the final regular season series Thursday afternoon at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
 
Windish, a sophomore second baseman from Jefferson, went 2-for-4 with a walk and four RBIs. He hit a two-run single in the first inning, then a two-run double in the fourth inning to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs.
 
Even with the victory, the Spartans (27-23 overall, 12-16 SoCon) were eliminated from postseason contention earlier in the day when Western Carolina (24-19, 12-11 SoCon) won at The Citadel. To earn the fourth seed in the Southern Conference tournament, UNCG needed to sweep its series with VMI and hope the Catamounts -- who control their own destiny -- were swept at The Citadel.
 
Even so, UNCG treated the matchup against VMI (16-29, 11-17 SoCon) like a postseason game.
 
Mathewson, a redshirt junior, pitched a season-high 4 1/3 innings in relief of starter Austin Koehn to pick up the win. Mathewson (3-3, 5.09 ERA) faced just two batters over the minimum, walked none and struck out three on an economical 44 pitches.
 
Austin Parsley (8-2, 3.43 ERA) retired all five batters he faced, striking out two, to notch his first save of the season.
 
Junior designated hitter Greg Hardison went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored for the Spartans. Lead-off hitter Corey Rosier and shortstop Zach Budzik both went 2-for-4.
 
Trailing 5-4 in the fourth inning, UNCG regained the lead when Rosier was hit by a pitch and Hardison doubled. Windish followed with a one-out rocket on the ground between shortstop and third base. VMI shortstop Zac Morris dived for the ball and got a glove on it, deflecting it toward the left-field line and slowing it down. Both runners scored and Windish cruised into second with a stand-up double.
 
UNCG added an insurance run in the fifth when Budzik singled, stole second, advanced to third on Pres Cavanaugh's deep fly ball to right field and scored on senior David Flores' sacrifice fly to deep center field.
 
That was all the offense Mathewson and Parsley needed.
 
VMI's Will Knight went 3-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored and an RBI to lead the Keydets. Justin Starke, who came into the game 10th in the nation in batting average, went 1-for-4 with a run scored, dropping him to .409 on the season.
 
The Spartans and Keydets will wrap up the regular season with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Friday at UNCG Baseball Stadium.