HPU baseball outduels Dayton in 3-0 win

• High Point clinched the weekend series against Dayton with a 3-0 win at Williard Stadium on Saturday.
• Junior Andre Scrubb threw eight shutout innings with eight strikeouts to earn the win.
• Junior Chris Clare scored two runs and extended his hit streak to 21 games.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team came out on top in a classic pitchers duel on Saturday, pulling out a 3-0 win over Dayton at Williard Stadium. The Panthers claimed their third series win of 2016 with the victory.

“Obviously this game was the antithesis of last night, but it was a win and it was a lot of fun,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We got zeros across the board and had zeros in the errors column. Andre Scrubb was sensational for eight innings and Tim Mansfield hit in the eighth gave us a little breathing room. We have put ourselves in a position to sweep so we need to come out tomorrow and keep finding ways to win baseball games.”

Junior Andre Scrubb had his best outing of the season with eight scoreless innings to improve to 2-1 on the season. Scrubb allowed just four hits and three walks while striking out a season-high eight. Redshirt-senior Joe Goodman got the save with a scoreless ninth on just five pitches.

Zach Beaver was the hard-luck loser for the Flyers as the right-hander gave up just one earned run on five hits and a walk and struck out seven in seven innings.

The win is High Point’s sixth in a row and it improves the team’s record to 7-3 this season. HPU last won six-straight games in 2014 when the Panthers won two-straight against William & Mary, earned midweek wins over North Carolina Central and UNCG and won the first two games at the Elon Invitational against Gardner-Webb and Elon. Dayton falls to 0-8 with the loss.

High Point got on the board in the bottom of the first inning when junior Chris Clare singled then came around to score on an RBI groundout by senior Dominic Fazio.

The score remained unchanged until the eighth when the Panthers added two insurance runs on an RBI triple by senior Tim Mansfield. Clare and Fazio both drew walks ahead of Mansfield who hit a low line drive to right field. The Dayton rightfielder made a diving attempt on the ball, but it skipped by him allowing both runners to score.

Clare scored two of High Point’s three runs and extended his hit streak to 21 games stretching back to last season. He finished 1-2 with a walk and a stolen base and is just the fourth HPU player in the Div. I era (2000-present) to have a hitting streak reach 20 games.

High Point will go for its first weekend sweep of the 2016 season on Sunday, March 6, at 1 p.m. when it takes on Dayton in the third and final game at Williard Stadium.