HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team scored four unanswered runs to break a 1-1 tie and pick up a 5-1 win over Wake Forest on Tuesday night at Williard Stadium. Freshman Josh Greene delivered the big hit for the Panthers with an RBI triple to put HPU in front.
“The last two days of baseball have been tremendous for us,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “I am very proud of the energy the guys came out with in our fourth game in three days. Defensively we made some special plays and offensively we were very opportunistic. Our pitching tonight was really good; John Maloney was special at the end of the game. We have now put together 18 innings of great baseball over the past two days.”
Junior Conor Lourey earned his second win in three days to improve to 3-0 on the season for High Point. Lourey pitched two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out two. Senior John Maloney notched his fourth save of the season for HPU with 2-2/3 innings of scoreless relief work. The senior did not give up a hit or walk while striking out four.
Connor Johnstone took the loss for the Demon Deacons, dropping to 1-2 on the season. The freshman pitched seven innings and gave up three runs, two earned, on five hits while striking out two.
High Point improves to 15-12 on the season with the win, its third in the past four games. The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for Wake Forest which drops to 19-11 on the year.
High Point and Wake Forest were tied 1-1 after four innings with each run scoring on a sacrifice fly. HPU scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the third when senior Kyle Brandenburg
The Panthers broke through to take the lead in the sixth inning with two runs to go ahead 3-1. Junior Dane McDermott led off the inning with a double down the right field line and was bunted over to third by Brandenburg. Greene then hit a triple to the right field corner to drive in the go-ahead run. Greene slid into third just ahead of the throw which eluded both the WFU third baseman and Johnstone backing up on the play before rolling into the dugout, allowing Greene to walk home.
The score remained 3-1 until the eighth inning when High Point added two insurance runs to push its lead to 5-1. The Panthers had runners on the corners with two outs thanks to a walk by Brandenburg and a single by junior Spencer Angelis. Brandenburg scored the first run on a wild pitch by Wake’s Nate Jones then Angelis came around to score two pitches later on a single by junior Josh Spano.
McDermott went 2-4 in the leadoff spot for the Panthers with a double and a run scored. Spano also recorded multiple hits for HPU, finishing 2-4 on the day with an RBI.
Joey Rodriguez accounted for four of Wake Forest’s six hits in the game, a new career high for the Demon Deacons’ right fielder.
High Point and Wake Forest will conclude their midweek home-and-home series on Wednesday, April 2, at 6 p.m., at the Wake Forest Baseball Park in Winston-Salem, N.C. The game will be HPU’s fifth in four days. Junior Will Resnik is expected to make his first start of the season for the Panthers as High Point tries to pickup the midweek sweep.