FLORENCE, SC – Senior right-hander Robbie Jordan pitched eight strong innings and matched his career high of 11 strikeouts while getting plenty of support from the Francis Marion University offense as the sixth-ranked Patriots drubbed 22nd-ranked Wingate University 12-2, Tuesday evening (Apr. 14) in non-conference baseball action.
 
Francis Marion improves to 35-8 with its sixth straight win and splits the season series with the Bulldogs (30-13).  FMU will return to Conference Carolinas play this weekend with a three-game series at Erskine College, beginning with a single game on Friday at 2 p.m.
 
Jordan retired the first 11 batters he faced, including seven strikeouts, en route to recording his nation-leading 10th win against only one loss.  The Florence Christian School product tossed 102 pitches and allowed only six hits and did not walk a batter.  The lone run he surrendered was in the eighth inning with the Patriots already on top 12-0.
 
Jordan also improved upon his school record for career wins, moving to 31-8 in 57 appearances.
 
Four Patriots recorded multiple hits in the game.  Both senior first baseman Riley Orr and freshman shortstop Logan Davis had two hits and three runs batted in, while junior designated hitter Ethan McAnally and senior left fielder Will Dorrel had two hits and one RBI.  McAnally extended his streak of safely reaching base to 28 contests.
 
FMU junior outfielder Charlie Bussey III, the nation's leading hitter with a .494 average, reached base five times, via a home run, a hit by pitch, and three walks.  Also leading Division II in runs scored, he crossed home plate three times on Tuesday to extend his season-record total to 82.
 
Orr gave the Patriots a quick 2-0 advantage in the first when he belted a 372-foot homer to left field after Bussey was hit by a pitch. 
 
Francis Marion erupted for six runs in the bottom of the third to push the margin to 8-0.  Bussey III walked to lead off the frame and McAnally singled to left field putting two runners on.  Orr followed with an RBI-single to right center, and Dorrell plated McAnally with an opposite-field run-scoring single to left.   
 
With runners on first and second, junior catcher Zander Buchan chopped a ball back to the mound, but the throw to first was wild and sailed down the right field line allowing a run to score.  Junior outfielder Zach Doorlag, making just his second start of the year, hit a sacrifice fly to deep right field that was dropped allowing Dorrell to cross the plate.  After a line-out, Davis – the Conference Carolinas' Freshman of the Month for March – lined a two-run double down the right field line.
 
Bussey launched his 14th homer of the season, a solo shot, over the left field wall to lead off the fourth.  It moved the junior past Preston Shuey (2008-11) into second place on the FMU career home runs list with 28, only two shy of Jeff Parsons (1987-90).
 
The lead reached double figures in the fifth when senior second baseman Jimmy Koza tripled down the right field line and scored on a sacrifice fly by Davis.  Three batters later, McAnally drilled an RBI-double down the left field line.
 
Junior third baseman Brandon Vargas accounted for the final FMU run with a run-scoring ground out in the seventh.
 
Wingate sophomore righty Cole Smith (1-2) was tagged with the loss.