HPU Baseball Drops 5-2 Decision At Longwood, Evens Series

• High Point lost on the road at Longwood by a score of 5-2 on Saturday to even the weekend series at 1-1.
• Junior Dominic Fazio drove in both Panther runs with a two-run home run, his first of the season.
• Sophomore Cas Silber took the loss on the mound despite striking out seven in six innings of work.

FARMVILLE, Va. – The High Point University baseball team fell at Longwood by a score of 5-2 on Saturday afternoon in Farmville, Va. The loss evens the weekend series at a game apiece.

“We were not very competitive today,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “Vick was very good on the mound and they were just better than us in every aspect of the game. We have put ourselves in a position where now we need to scrap and find a way to win the series tomorrow.”

Sophomore Cas Silber was charged with the loss in his second start of the season, dropping to 2-1. Silber pitched six innings and allowed four runs, two earned, on nine hits and walk with seven strikeouts.

Brandon Vick threw a complete game to earn the win for the Lancers and improve to 1-3 on the season. Vick allowed two earned runs on five hits while striking out seven.

High Point drops to 13-12 overall and 3-2 in the Big South with the loss while Longwood improved to 11-14 overall and 3-5 in conference play.

Longwood broke a 0-0 tie in the bottom of the fourth with three runs to go ahead, 3-0. The Lancers loaded the bases for Michael Osiniski who hit a grounder to third. HPU tried to turn an inning-ending double play, but a hard slide at second caused the throw by sophomore Chris Clare to sail high, allowing two runs to score. Longwood then added a third run on an RBI single by Mac McCafferty.

High Point came right back in the top of the fifth and scored two runs to pull to within one at 3-2. Sophomore Josh Greene was hit by a pitch ahead of junior Dominic Fazio who came to the plate as a pinch hitter. Fazio lifted a 2-1 pitch from Vick over the wall in left for his first home run of the season.

In the bottom of the fifth, Longwood got a run on a sacrifice fly by Travis Biddix to drive in Brandon Delk from third, putting Longwood ahead by two.

Longwood added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out RBI single by Osinski to put the Lancers up 5-2.

High Point and Longwood meet in the rubber game of the three-game series on Sunday, March 29, in Farmville, Va. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m.