HPU Baseball Wins Sixth-Straight With 6-2 Victory At Elon

BURLINGTON, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team gave up just two hits in a 6-2 win over Elon Saturday afternoon on the second day of the Elon Invitational in Burlington, N.C. The win is HPU’s sixth-straight and seventh in eight games.

“I was really pleased with our offensive discipline and aggression today,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We faced a quality starter, but were able to manufacture some runs. Mike Krumm gave us five solid innings despite not having his best stuff and the bullpen did the rest. We are playing with a lot of confidence right now and hopefully we will carry that into tomorrow.”

Senior Mike Krumm earned the win for High Point and improved to 2-1 on the season. The left-hander pitched five scoreless innings, giving up two hits and four walks while striking out four. Junior Conor Lourey and freshman Jeremy Johnson and Cas Silber combined to pitch four no-hit innings of relief out of the bullpen, striking out five phoenix batters.

Lucas Bakker took the loss for Elon and dropped to 1-1 on the season. Bakker pitched 4-1/3 innings and gave up five runs, three earned, on eight hits and a walk while striking out two.

High Point improves to 7-4 on the season with the win while Elon falls to 7-3.

Freshman Brenden Rivera got High Point on the board in the top of the third inning with an RBI single to score sophomore Tim Mansfield from third. The Panthers then added a run two batters later when an RBI groundout by junior Cody Manzella drove in junior Josh Spano to make the score 2-0.

HPU continued to add to its lead in the fourth with an RBI double by senior Kyle Brandenburg. Junior Tony Fortier-Bensen reached base with a one-out single and advanced to third on a passed ball and a wild pitch. The shortstop then came home on Brandenburg’s double down the left field line.

High Point doubled its lead with three runs in the fifth thanks to two RBI hits with two outs and the bases-loaded. Brandenburg picked up his second RBI of the day with a single through the left side to score freshman Chris Clare for the first run of the frame. Junior Dane McDermott also scored on the play for the Panthers. After Mansfield was hit by a pitch to reload the bases, Spano hit a single to left to score Fortier-Bensen.

Elon scored twice in the seventh inning to pull back within four of HPU at 6-2. The Phoenix got their first run of the game off the bat of Casey Jones who reached on a fielding error by Clare. A second run then scored on a sacrifice bunt by Sebastian Gomez.

Spano, Rivera, Angelis, Fortier-Bensen and Brandenburg all had two hits on the day for the Panthers. Brandenburg picked up a team-high two RBI in the win while Fortier-Bensen led the squad with two runs scored.

High Point will play its third game of the Elon Invitational against Saint Joseph’s on Sunday, March 2 in Burlington, N.C. Freshman Andre Scrubb will make his third start of the season for High Point against the Hawks. First pitch is set for 12 p.m.