PEMBROKE – The UNC Pembroke baseball team negated an early 3-0 deficit with six runs in the fourth inning, and then held off a late charge by visiting Georgia Southwestern on the way to a series-opening 8-6 win over the Hurricanes on Friday afternoon at Sammy Cox Field.

Nick Salisbury singled in a run and scored twice on a 2-for-3 day at the plate that helped fuel a 12-hit attack for the Braves (16-8, 5-5 PBC), while Christian Snider doubled in a run to highlight a 2-for-5 plate performance. Roberto Rivera (2-for-3) and Nolan Pierce (2-for-4) both drove in runs on two-hit lines as well.

Dakota Long doubled, homered and drove in four runs for Georgia Southwestern (15-11, 2-11). Zach Barron hit a pair of singled and scored twice on five trips to the plate for the visitors.

Jesse Stinnett (5-0) struck out eight and scattered seven hits and four runs over eight effective innings of work to grab the win for the hosts, while Alex Britt recorded the game's final out en route to notching his fifth save of the campaign. Starter Earl Dupree (2-4) took the loss for the Hurricanes after surrendering six earned runs on as many hits in 3-1/3 innings from the hill.

Georgia Southwestern got RBI singles from both Brandon Weaver and Barron to take a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, but UNCP finally got on the board in the bottom of the frame on Salisbury's two-out single to right field that brought Snider rumbling home from third base. The Black & Gold would send 11 batters to the plate in a momentum-changing fourth inning to take a lead it would never relinquish, however.

The Hurricanes trailed 8-3 after Rivera's RBI single in the fifth, but sliced into their deficit on a RBI single by Long in the seventh, as well as a two-run homer from the GSW rookie in the ninth.