Panthers Baseball Top Charleston Southern 13-9 to Win Series

CHARLESTON, S.C. – The High Point University baseball team beat Charleston Southern 13-9 to win the Big South Conference series. The game was suspended due to rain on Saturday with HPU leading 10-9 in the top of the 6th. The Panthers scored three runs when the game resumed on Sunday to win the series.

Freshman Joe Goodman got the final two outs of the fifth on Saturday and returned to the mound on Sunday to get the win. He pitched 4-2/3 innings of relief, allowing four hits with five strikeouts. He is 2-2 on the season. He also picked up a save in the opening game of the Charleston Southern series.

Patrick Dolan took the loss for CSU, dropping to 2-2 this season. He gave up seven runs, five earned, in 1-12/3 innings of work. He walked one and struck out one in the start.

High Point improves to 16-9 this season and 2-0 in the Big South. Charleston Southern stands at 7-17, 0-2 Big South.

The Panthers jumped out to an early 10-3 lead, scoring five runs in the second inning. Sal Pezzino had a two-RBI double and Sean Wilson and Ryan Retz each drove in a run.

The Buccaneers slowly chipped away at the lead, tagging HPU starter Matt Armstead with seven runs, six earned, in four innings of work. Armstead was relieved by Jordan Foster in the fifth inning who failed to get an out before giving up a run. Will Resnik gave up another run in the fifth, getting one out before Goodman entered the game. CSU had cut High Point’s lead to 10-9 at the end of five innings.

Mike Miedzianowski was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth inning, the last play of the game before the rain delay started. When the game restarted on Sunday Zach Hubbard was the pinch runner at first base and CSU reliever Kevin Buran was on the mound. Willie Medina singled to left to score Hubbard and then scored himself on a pass ball. Pezzino would also double and score in the frame to extend the Panthers’ lead to 13-9.

Goodman gave up a pair of two-out base hits in the bottom of the sixth but struck out the side to end the inning. Retz finished the game 4-6 with three RBI and Pezzino was 3-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.

Medina stole four bases in the game, setting the HPU single-game record. The previous record was three which was accomplished by 11 different Panthers. The last HPU player to steal three bases was Dane McDermott against Elon on Feb. 29, 2012. As a team HPU stole 10 bases, another single-game record.

The final game of the series is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. Junior Jacob Newberry will get the start for the Panthers. He is 3-0 this season with a 2.43 ERA.