Nick Chigges pitched eight strong innings and Stuart Haywood and Chris Campbell drove in two runs each as 25th-ranked College of Charleston defeated The Citadel, 7-2, in the opener of its three-game Southern Conference baseball series before 3,120 at Joe Riley Park on Friday.

With the win, the Cougars improved to 32-10 overall and 13-3 in league play.  The Bulldogs fell to 24-17 and 8-8.  Game two of the series is Saturday at 5:00.

Chigges (8-0) picked up the win surrendering a run on just five hits with four walks and four strikeouts.  Chigges improved his career record to 28-4 and his career strikeout total to 307, seventh on the SoCon’s all-time list.

Campbell’s RBI grounder in the first scored Oliver Marmol and staked the Cougars to a 1-0 first inning lead. 

Michael Harrington’s RBI grounder and a run-producing triple from Ben Lasater in the fourth gave Charleston a 3-0 lead. 

After The Citadel's Chris McGuiness cut the margin to 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth with a two-out RBI single to center, the Cougars stretched their lead to 6-1 with a three-run fifth inning.

Haywood had a two-run single to center that scored Joey Bergman and Marmol, and Campbell capped the inning with a single to center that plated Haywood for a five-run lead.

Michael Kohn added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to give Charleston a 7-1 lead.  Sid Fallow’s solo homer to left in the ninth was the final margin.

Wes Wrenn (3-5) was the starter and loser for The Citadel allowing six runs, four earned, on five hits over seven innings.