HPU Baseball Earns 8-3 Win Over North Carolina A&T

• High Point earned its sixth win in eight games with an 8-3 home win over North Carolina A&T on Tuesday.
• Five different HPU hitters had multiple hits, led by senior Brady Williamson and freshman Carson Jackson who each had three.
• The Panther bullpen struck out 12 batters in 6-1/3 innings of relief work with seven coming from senior Conor Lourey.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team continued its recent string of strong performances with an 8-3 win over North Carolina A&T on Tuesday night at Williard Stadium. The win was HPU’s sixth in the past eight games.

“This was a very methodical win tonight,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We had some quality at bats and some guys do some nice things at the plate. This game wasn’t in hand until we got to out bullpen where we got 12 strikeouts. They really slammed the door for us on a night where we generated some nice offense.”

Junior Tyler Britton earned the win for High Point to improve to 2-1 on the season. The right-hander pitched 2-1/3 innings in relief and allowed two runs, one earned on one hits and three walks with two strikeouts.

Britton combined with seniors Conor Lourey and Will Resnik and redshirt-junior Joe Goodman to strikeout 12 Aggie batters in 6-1/3 innings of relief. Lourey picked up seven strikeouts in 2-2/3 innings of work, including a string of six-straight.

Freshman Austin Heinz made his first start for the Panthers and pitched 2-2/3 innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits and two walks.

Evan Miranda got the start and was charged with the loss for North Carolina A&T, dropping him to 0-3 on the season. Miranda pitched three innings and gave up three earned runs on five hits and a walk.

High Point improves to 8-10 on the season with the win while North Carolina A&T drops to 2-13 overall.

The Panthers struck early with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Freshman Hunter Lee led off with a single and moved to third before scoring on a wild pitch and freshman Carson Jackson drove in senior Spencer Angelis with an RBI single after he reached with a triple.

After the Aggies scored two runs in the third to tie the game, High Point retook the lead in the bottom of the frame on senior Josh Spano‘s first home run of the season. Spano turned on a 2-1 pitch and sent it over the wall in left-center for his sixth career home run, the most among active HPU players.

High Point would add a run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to extend its lead to 6-3 heading into the final three frames. Senior Tony Fortier-Bensen hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth to score senior Brady Williamson, Angelis had an RBI single in the fifth to score Spano and Lee hit an RBI double in the sixth to score senior Dane McDermott.

The Panthers would take on two runs in the eighth to bring the final margin to 8-3. Williamson led off the inning with a double and McDermott followed with a bunt single. A walk to Fortier-Bensen loaded the bases for Lee who hit a ground ball to second. Williamson scored on the play and McDermott came around to score when the throw to first to try to get the double play was off line.

Five different HPU players finished with multiple hits in the game, led by Williamson and Jackson who each had three hits. Williamson went 3-4 with two doubles and two runs scored while Jackson went 3-3 with a walk and an RBI. Lee, Angelis and McDermott all had two hits in the contest. Lee also finished with two RBI and a run scored.

Adan Ordonez went 2-4 with a run scored and Brandon Wilkerson went 1-3 with two walks and a run scored for North Carolina A&T.

High Point opens conference play this weekend when the Panthers play host to current Big South leader Campbell for a three-game series beginning on Friday, March 20. The Camels eliminated HPU from the Big South Tournament last season, winning both games in the Big South semifinals by scores of 3-1 and 2-1.