PEMBROKE – The 12th-ranked UNC Pembroke baseball team pounded out 13 hits and scored seven times behind a career-long outing from Logan Cook to post a 7-2 victory over Flagler in the front half of a series-opening doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Sammy Cox Field.

Ben Schmucker (3 RBI) and Zade Denton both hit home runs to highlight 2-for-3 hitting lines for UNCP (21-7, 10-6 PBC) while Brett Huffman (2-for-4) and Cody Trogdon (2-for-2) both turned in multi-hit performances as well. Three different players recorded base hits for Flagler, including Nick Kranick (1-for-3) who drove in both of the runs on the day for the Saints (15-12, 7-9).

Cook (4-1) struck out three and scattered three hits and two earned runs over a career-long 7-2/3 innings from the hill to pick up the win for the hosts, while closer Zach Andrews closed out the contest with 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Kyle Bird (1-3) took the loss for Flagler after allowing nine hits and four earned runs in just 3-2/3 innings of work.

The visitors scratched the scoreboard first on Kranick's one-out RBI single in the first, but the Braves stormed ahead for good in the second on the shoulders of a solo homer from Denton and a RBI single off the bat of Trogdon. The Saints cut into a 4-1 deficit on Kranick's RBI groundout in the fourth, but the hosts answered the run with Huffman's run-scoring double in the bottom of the frame, and then added a trio of insurance runs on Schmucker's 3-run bomb in the fifth.

Cook faced four or less batters in each of the first six innings, and then induced a double play to nullify a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh.