BOILING SPRINGS – With Atlantic Sun Conference play beginning in just three days, Gardner-Webb got a needed boost on the diamond Tuesday afternoon, pounding out 21 hits to whip UNC Asheville 13-3.

Gardner-Webb (2-2) will host North Carolina A&T on Wednesday at 2 pm ET in another non-league tussle, but will open A-Sun play earlier than ever when Jacksonville comes to town this weekend for a three-game series.

GWU wasted little time with Asheville on Tuesday. The Diamond ‘Dogs scored two runs in the second, plated seven in the third and scored again in the fourth to quickly stake itself to a comfortable 10-0 lead.

Matt Rizzuto got things started with a sharp single to lead off the second, then scored on Justin Loyd's double to right for a 1-0 edge. Bubbie Spake, who walked to follow Rizzuto, wound up on third – and scored on Tyler Johnson's sacrifice fly to center for the Bulldogs' second run.

Things unraveled badly for UNC Asheville freshman righty Grier Harrington in the third. Jamall Kinard hammered the frame's first pitch into right for a single, Daniel Cooke belted a single to center – and Jeremiah Lokken singled in Kinard for a 3-0 lead. Harrington plunked Rizzuto to load the bases, and walked Spake to push the margin to 4-0. Harrington recovered to strike out Loyd for the first out – but catcher O.J. McFarland smoked a three-run double to dead center to give Gardner-Webb a 7-0 lead.

Johnson then singled to center, putting runners on the corner and chasing Harrington from the game. Carson McLean came on in relief, but uncorked a wild pitch to move Johnson into scoring position. A fielding error allowed McFarland to score and Jon Ahearn to reach base – but Johnson was thrown out at the plate for the second out. Kinard then collected his second hit of the inning – an RBI single to left – scoring Ahearn. Kinard was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double, ending the inning with GWU up 9-0.

Loyd made the score 10-0 with an RBI groundout in the fourth.

A two-out triple off the bat of UNC Asheville's Kevin Wiedenbacher gave the visitors their first score of the game in the fifth – but Gardner-Webb starter Josh Drewery, who cruised to that point, got out of the inning without further damage. Wiedenbacher's triple was only Asheville's second hit of the game, and the first since a Justin Schumer single in the top of the first.

Gardner-Webb pushed its lead to 11-1 in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by Cooke and – after UNC Asheville scored a pair in the top of the eight to trim the lead to 11-3, GWU responded with two of its own in the bottom of the frame to push its advantage back to 10 runs.

Rookie Brian Vollmer worked a perfect ninth to finish the game for Gardner-Webb.

Drewery (1-0) was sharp in his first start of the season, working 6.0 innings, allowing just two hits and striking out three. Freshmen Brett Stackhouse and Nick Brown joined Vollmer in closing out the game on the mound for the hosts.

GWU got three hits from Johnson (3-for-4, RBI, run), Loyd (3-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI) and Cooke (3-for-4, RBI, run) – and two each from McFarland (2-for-5, 2B, 4 RBI), Spake (2-for-3, 2B, 3 runs, 2 RBI), Kinard (2-for-4, RBI, run) and Rizzuto (2-for-3, 2 runs). A total of 11 different GWU players collected hits in the game.

Harrington (0-1) got the loss after allowing eight hits and seven earned runs (eight total) in 2.1 innings of work. McClean allowed 13 hits and four earned runs (five strikeouts) in 5.2 innings of work out of the pen for the visiting set of Bulldogs.

Five different hitters accounted for Asheville's five hits in Tuesday's game.