HPU Baseball Clinches Series With 10-5 Win Over Presbyterian College

• High Point scored six unanswered runs to come-from-behind for a 10-5 win over Presbyterian College on Saturday.
• Senior Tony Fortier-Bensen and sophomore Chris Clare both had three hits including a home run in the win.
• Senior Will Resnik got the win with 3-1/3 scoreless innings of relief to improve to 2-0.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team clinched the weekend series against Presbyterian College with a 10-5 win in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Williard Stadium.

“I was really pleased with our guys’ response after going down in the middle innings,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We showed a lot of character. I was very pleased with our offensive production. Clare and Fortier-Bensen were outstanding at the bottom of our lineup and Josh Spano had a tremendous day as well. On the mound, we were really in control once Will Resnik came into the game. He did a great job shutting down their lineup. Now we have to go and show the fortitude to finish off the series.”

Senior Will Resnik earned the win for the Panthers with 3-1/3 scoreless innings of relief, improving to 2-0 on the season. Resnik gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out six. Sophomore Cas Silber started for HPU and pitched 5-2/3 innings, giving up five runs, two earned, on seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

Ethan Wortkoetter took the loss for the Blue Hose and dropped to 3-3 on the season. Wortkoetter pitched 2-1/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on three hits with one strikeout.

HPU improves to 19-18 overall and 8-6 in the Big South with the win. The series win if The Panthers’ fourth in five conference series this season. Presbyterian College drops to 22-17 overall and 4-10 in the Big South.

High Point took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, scoring a run with two outs. Senior Cody Manzella singled and came around to score on a double off the wall by senior Spencer Angelis. Weyenberg tried to run down the Angelis hit and collided with the fence at the same time as the ball.

The Panthers pushed two runs across in the second inning to extend their lead to 3-0. Sophomore Chris Clare singled and stole both second aver thend third before scoring on a double to the gap by freshman Hunter Lee. Senior Josh Spano followed Lee and laced a double down the line to score the freshman and put HPU up 3-0.

Clare added to the High Point lead with a solo home run in the fourth inning, his third of the season. The HPU second baseman turned on a pitch from Dees and hit it over the wall in left to put High Point ahead 4-0.

Presbyterian College came back with five unanswered runs to take a 5-4 lead over HPU. The Blue Hose scored three runs in the fifth on a home run by Tyler Weyenberg then added two runs in the following inning on a two-out RBI single by Ryan Hedrick.

High Point answered the Presbyterian College run with two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a home run by seniorTony Fortier-Bensen to go back ahead, 6-5. Clare recorded his third hit of the day and scored when Fortier-Bensen deposited a ball over the wall in left for his second home run of the season.

The Panthers scored two more runs in the seventh and two runs in the eighth to pull away for the 10-5 win. Freshman Carson Jackson drove in both runs in the seventh with an RBI double while Spano and sophomore Josh Greene drove in runs with an RBI double and a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

High Point recorded 16 hits on the day with five different HPU batters recording multiple hits in the game for the Panthers. Spano, Clare and Fortier-Bensen all had three hits while Manzella and Greene both had two hits.

High Point and Presbyterian College conclude the three-game series with the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Williard Stadium that began at 4:45 p.m.