CHARLESTON – Charleston Southern claimed their conference opener over Gardner-Webb by a 16-5 scoreline. Mason Reising finished the day going 5-5 at the plate, scoring five runs and batting in five as well. He becomes just the 18^th player in program history to have five or more hits in a single game as well as the 45^th player to have multiple home runs in a single game.
 
In the second, the two teams traded two runs each with Gardner-Webb getting theirs off an RBI single and an RBI groundout. In the Bucs' half of the inning, Gavin Speirs had a two RBI double to score Lucas Pringle and Mason Reising.
 
In the third, the teams continued their scoring with the Runnin' Bulldogs tallying on in their half. In the bottom half, Lucas Pringle drove a ball deep over the fence in right field for a three-run home run to bring Reising and Alex Marot home and claim a 5-3 lead.
 
The fifth saw Gardner-Webb tally a solo home run to cut their deficit to a run, but Mason Reising had towering a two-run home run to left center to give them breathing room and begin a run of ten unanswered runs for the Buccaneers.
 
In the sixth, Charleston Southern scored five with Marot having an RBI single. Later in the inning, Nathan Martinez had a two RBI single to third followed by Edgmon having a two RBI single of his own. In the seventh, Reising smashed another home run to left field with this one scoring three runs and moving the scoreline to 15-4.
 
In the eighth, Garrison Barile sent one deep to right center for a solo homer for the final run by the Bucs of the night. Gardner-Webb scratched one across in the ninth to move the final scoreline to 16-5 with an RBI groundout in the frame.
 
At the plate, Reising led the team with five runs scored, five hits and five RBIs. As a squad, they finished with 20 hits with Wright, Marot, Pringle, Martinez, Speirs and Edgmon all finishing with two on the day. Pringle had three RBIs with Martinez, Speirs and Edgmon collecting two apiece. Marot crossed home four times and Pringle did three times.
 
On the mound, Titus Von Kapff earned the win after throwing 5.0 innings allowing four runs, just two being earned, to go with six hits and four walks. Jack Bunnell was the first reliever out of the bullpen and he threw 2.0 scoreless innings allowing one hit and one walk. Bryson Huwar had the eighth and ninth, allowing one run and giving up one hit in his appearance.
 
 
The two teams return to Nielsen Field @ CSU Ballpark tomorrow afternoon for the second game of the series. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.