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COLUMBUS – The 17th-ranked Columbus State University baseball team moved its winning streak to double digits with a 6-1 win over No. 15 UNC Pembroke on Friday evening. The Peach Belt Conference game was played at Burger King Stadium at Ragsdale Field.
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Kolton Ingram (5-0) recorded his second straight complete game on the mound and the Cougar offense pounded out three more home runs to give CSU its 10
th straight win.
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"Kolton didn't have his best stuff tonight, especially early," head coach
Greg Appleton said. "He did a good job though of battling throughout the game and the defense played well behind him."
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Things got started with a bang on Friday night as
Mason McClellan jumped on a pitch in the bottom of the first inning for a two-run home run. The long ball was his third of the season and ultimately proved to provide all the offense Ingram would need.
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Ingram allowed leadoff runners in the first two innings, but the Cougars erased both via double plays.
Austin Pharr doubled off a runner with a strong throw in the first inning and McClellan snagged a line drive and caught the runner off in the second.
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UNC Pembroke (13-4, 6-4 PBC) got its only run of the night with a two-out single in the third, however it didn't take long for the Cougars to get the run back.
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Columbus State (16-2, 4-0) pushed the lead right back to two as
Justin Evans went the other way with a deep homer to right-centerfield leading off the third.
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Drew Webb added another run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth and
Frank Wager blasted off for the eighth time on the season with a two-run shot in the fifth.
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Ingram took care of the rest for the Cougars, firing six shutout innings to close out the game. The southpaw allowed just the one run on eight hits with eight strikeouts to pick up his conference-leading fifth win.
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Evans was 3-for-4 at the plate, coming up just a double shy of the cycle. Wager, Pharr and
Chase Brown each had a pair of hits.
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Columbus State and UNC Pembroke will play the middle game of the series on Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.
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