ELON, N.C. – Early offense paved the way for Charleston Southern to claim their 10^th win of the season as they clinched the weekend series at Elon on Saturday. The score for the game ended at 13-4 in favor of the Buccaneers.
 
Charleston Southern's mark of 10-3 now on the season becomes the third time in the D1 era that they have reached that record with the other years coming in 1987 and 2014. This is the second-fastest they have gotten to ten wins in their D1 era, needing 13 games to reach it. The only time that they did faster was in 1987 when CSU started the year 10-2 but dropped their 13^th game of the spring.
 
After scoring once through the first six innings of yesterday's series opener, Charleston Southern's offense wasted no time to get rolling on Saturday. In the top of the second, they tallied the first of the game for either team with Nathan Martinez sending a single up the middle to score Aidan McAskie.
 
In the third, AJ Martin stepped to the plate with Kaden Smith and Chandler Tuupo on first and second. Martin then with the count at 0-2 hammered the ball to left center just over the outfield wall for a three-run shot and his team-leading fifth long ball of the season. In the fourth, Smith reached on an error to score Lucas Pringle while Tuupo had a single up the middle to score Anthony Sanguedolce. After the first 3.5 frames, Charleston Southern led 6-0.
 
Elon was finally able to get their offense rolling in the bottom of the fourth, using an RBI groundout to score a runner from third. In the fifth, back-to-back singles to the outfield with the bases loaded were able to each score another and bring their deficit to 6-3.
 
Martin collected his fourth and fifth RBIs of the day with a single to left field to score Sanguedolce and Smith in the top of the 6^th to stretch their lead back out, now at 8-3. Elon recorded their final run of the day in the bottom of the eighth. With no outs and runners on the corners, they grounded into a double play but moved the runner from third to home plate.
 
In the top of the ninth, the Buccaneers put the game completely out of hand for the Phoenix as they went on to tally five runs, placing the score at 13-4.
 
Pringle had a bunt single when the bases were loaded to score Martin to mark the first. This was followed by a defensive miscue by Elon that allowed McAskie to go home from third. Later in the inning with the basepaths filled back up, Smith drove a ball to the right field wall, clearing the bases and finishing off the scoring for the day for the two teams.
 
Tait Robertson received the starting nod, his first weekend appearance of the year after serving earlier in the year as the midweek starter, including this past Tuesday at Georgia Southern. He threw 4.0 innings allowing three runs, five hits and one walk. Tyler Henshaw went on in relief of him, tossing a shutout in his 2.0 frames of work. Hayden Henry was next out tossing 1.2 and gave up one earned run. Ryan DuSang closed out the day, throwing a shutout for the final 1.1 and striking out two batters.
 
As a team, Charleston Southern finished with 12 hits, seven walks and five hit by pitches on the day with Martin leading them with a perfect 4-4 day at the plate as well as a hit by pitch. Smith and Pringle also finished with multiple hits as they each had three on the day. Tuupo and Martinez each had as well. Sanguedolce and McAskie each drew a pair of walks as well as a hit by pitch. Martin finished with a team-high five RBIs with Smith adding three.
 
The Buccaneers and Phoenix will meet again on Sunday afternoon for the series finale at Latham Field at 1:00 p.m. The game will be available on FloSports with CSU looking to complete their second three-game sweep of the season in their first road weekend of the spring.