UNC Wilmington celebrated its return from a 10-day layoff by banging out 11 hits and moving into third place in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 7-2 victory over Hofstra in the opener of a three-game conference baseball series Friday at Brooks Field.

    The Seahawks, idle since a 12-0 rout of Coastal Carolina on April 20, improved to 21-16 overall and 7-5 in the league, while the Pride dropped its fifth straight to fall to 11-26 and 3-13.

    Junior southpaw Zach Kimball (4-4) worked 6 2/3 innings for UNCW and allowed two earned runs on eight hits, walking none and striking out four. Senior shortstop Aaron Smith had three hits for the Seahawks, going 3-for-4 with two doubles. Junior outfielder Tim Preston and sophomore outfielder John Raynor added two hits apiece to the UNCW offensive attack.

    Hofstra starter Charlie Frago (3-4) lasted just three innings, giving up four runs on four hits, walking two and fanning one. Senior designated hitter Mike Perullo went 3-for-4 with three singles to pace the Hofstra Pride, now 3-14 away from home.

    The Pride opened the scoring in the top of the second inning for a 1-0 lead. Perullo slapped a bloop single to shallow rightfield and moved to third on J.P. Wecter's double inside the third base bag. After Mike Walsh lined out to center, George Athanasopoulos plated Perullo with a sacrifice fly to center. Kimball then fanned Steve Oliveri to get out of the inning.

    UNCW scored three runs with two outs in the bottom half of the second to take the lead, 3-1. With one out, Aaron Smith doubled into the leftfield corner, but was thrown out at the plate trying to score on Tim Preston's base hit. After John Raynor drew a walk, Seahawk third baseman Matt Poulk belted his third homer of the season over the centerfield wall to put UNCW ahead for good.

    Hofstra cut the deficit to 3-2 with another run in the third. Andrew Campana doubled over the head of Preston in left and raced home on Josh Stewart's RBI double. Stewart was gunned down trying to stretch the hit to a triple and Kimball retired Ricky Caputo and Josh Stern to end the rally.

    UNCW answered with a run in the bottom of the third to push the score to 4-2. With one out, Jonathan Batts walked and Matt Sutton's ground-out moved Batts to second. Neil Eichhorn then drilled an RBI double to left-centerfield, scoring Batts, to extend the lead to two runs again.

    The Seahawks broke the game open by scoring three runs in bottom of the sixth to pad their lead to 7-2. Smith doubled to start the rally and Preston singled him to third. Raynor then ripped an RBI single to score Smith and Matt Poulk reached first to load the bases when Hofstra first baseman Michael Walsh dropped a throw. Robert White's ground-out scored Preston with the second run and Chip Grawey doubled home Raynor to stake the Seahawks to a five-run cushion.

    UNCW and Hofstra battle in the second game of the series Saturday at 2 p.m.