FLORENCE, S.C. – Anthony Burke and Kyle Ramsey combined to post the 24^th-ranked UNC Pembroke baseball team's fifth shutout of the season, and the fifth-seeded Braves used a late-inning burst to upend fourth-seeded Columbus State, 5-0, in the opening round of the Peach Belt Conference Tournament on Wednesday evening.
 
The victory propels the Braves (38-13) into winner's bracket play on Thursday at Francis Marion's Sparrow Stadium where they will take on second-ranked and top-seeded North Georgia (41-8) at 8:30 p.m. Columbus State (29-20) will lock horns with Georgia Southwestern (19-28) in a 5 p.m. elimination contest.
 
Ethan Baucom doubled, tripled and scored twice on a clutch 2-for-4 night at the plate to pace the Braves, while Jarratt Mobley drove in a pair of insurance runs in the ninth to highlight a 2-for-4 hitting line. Nick Debo walked and singled in a run on a 1-for-2 outing as well.
 
Austin Collins and Grant Berry each turned in 3-for-4 nights for Columbus State who stranded nine runners on the base paths in the contest. Tyler Fichter (2-for-4) registered a pair of hits for the Cougars as well.
 
Burke (10-1) became just the second UNCP pitcher (Brad Isom, 2011) in the last 42 years of the program to register 10 wins in season after striking out four and scattering eight hits over seven scoreless innings. Ramsey, who grabbed first team all-league honors on Tuesday evening, closed out the game with two scoreless innings from the hill to notch his sixth save of the season.
 
Caleb Kutsche (10-3) struck out 10 batters in 8-1/3 innings for the Cougars, but took the loss anyway after surrendering five earned runs on eight hits. It was the second time this season that the senior right-hander has fallen victim to the Black & Gold.
 
Neither team was able to scrape across a run through the first six innings of play, but Baucom's one-out triple in the seventh set the stage for Debo's sac fly moments later that would prove to be all the offense that UNCP would need. Baucom made it a 2-0 game with a one-out RBI double in the ninth, but the Black & Gold would add three more insurance runs, including two on a clutch one-out single by Mobley.

Burke retired eight of the last nine batters he faced in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings before giving way to Ramsey in the eighth. Ramsey allowed just one base runner in the eighth, and induced a game-ending double play to seal the victory in the ninth.