CHARLESTON, S.C. – The High Point University baseball team clinched its weekend series against Charleston Southern with a 6-4 win in the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday in Charleston, S.C. Freshman Josh Greene went 3-4 in the game and drove in the go-ahead run with his second home run of the season.
“Our first three innings were pretty ugly but I have to hand it to the team for putting that behind them and playing a really good final six innings,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “Cas Silber did a great job calming things down on the mound and John Maloney pitched well in the late innings. Our sticks showed up today and it was great to see Josh Greene and Brenden Rivera each pick up big home runs. It’s nice to have won the series but we can’t be content and need to go out and complete the sweep.”
Freshman Cas Silber improved to 3-0 on the mound after pitching 4-1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Silber allowed just one hit and four walks in the game. Senior John Maloney pitched the final two innings to earn his fifth save of the season.
Senior Mike Krumm started for High Point and lasted just 2-2/3 innings, surrendering four runs, three earned, on five hits and two walks while striking out one.
Tyler Weekely took the loss for CSU to drop to 3-3 on the season Weekley pitched three innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits while striking out one.
High Point improves to 17-13 overall and 6-5 in the Big South with the win over the Buccaneers. Charleston Southern drops to 16-18 overall and 2-9 in the Big South.
CSU scored three runs in the first two innings to take an early 3-0 lead over the Panthers. Chase Shelton drove in the first run on a 6-3 double play and was followed by Zack Hagaman who hit an RBI single. In the following inning, Bobby Ison hit an RBI single to extend the CSU lead to 3-0.
High Point came back to tie the game with three runs in the third. The Panthers loaded the bases with three-straight singles by juniors Tony Fortier-Bensen and Dane McDermott and senior Kyle Brandenburg. Greene drove in the first run of the game with a single to right and junior Spencer Angelis was hit by a pitch to score the second run. Junior Josh Spano then hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Brandenburg and tie the game.
The Buccaneers retook the lead in the bottom of the third when Cody Austin was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and led 4-3 until the seventh inning.
Greene put HPU back in front in the seventh with a two-run home run, his second of the week. The freshman hit a 3-2 pitch well over the fence in right to push the Panthers in front. McDermott picked up his third hit of the game with a single to leadoff the inning and scored on the Greene home run.
Freshman Brenden Rivera added an insurance run in the eighth with his first collegiate home run. The freshman got a hold of the first pitch he saw and hit it well over the wall in right-center to put High Point in front, 6-4.
Greene finished the three RBI and a run scored while going 3-4 at the plate. McDermott went 4-5 in the game with two runs scored. The junior is 6-8 in the first two games of the weekend with four runs scored.
Bobby Ison went 3-4 with an RBI and a run scored out of the leadoff spot for the Buccaneers in the loss.
First pitch in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader between High Point and Charleston Southern is set for 3:15 p.m., in Charleston, S.C.