HPU baseball falls to Army in series finale, 7-5

• High Point dropped the final game of the weekend by a score of 7-3 against Army on Sunday.
• Senior Jeremy Johnson came out of the pen and threw 5-1/3 shutout innings, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out three.
• Junior Jordan Sergent hit his fourth home run of the season, tying him for the team lead.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell into an early hole on the way to a 7-3 defeat at the hands of Army on Sunday at Williard Stadium. The Panthers still took the weekend series against the Black Knights two games to one after winning each of the first two contests.

“We lost today because we beat ourselves,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We were terrible on the mound and defensively in the first three innings but as bad as we were in those situations we were that much worse in RBI situations at the plate. We have a bunch of upperclassmen with a lot of experience that are supposed to be leading this team and they are getting nothing done in big time situations when games are decided. They have to figure out what they want to do because in a blink of an eye their careers will be over.”

Sophomore Cooper Jeffers got the start for High Point and lasted just two-thirds of an inning, allowing four runs, three earned, on three hits and two walks while striking out two.

Daniel Gibbons earned the win for Army and improved to 1-1 on the season. Gibbons allowed just one earned run on four hits in five innings and struck out three.

High Point’s struggles at the plate continued as HPU went 0-15 with runners in scoring position on the afternoon and left 11 men on base. Junior Jordan Sergent went 1-4 with a home run, a walk and two runs scored while junior Ryan Mason finished 1-3 with two walks, an RBI and a run scored.

The Panthers fall to 6-5 on the season with the loss while Army improves to 3-7.

High Point trailed 7-1 after three innings as Army scored four runs in the first and three more in the third. The Panthers only run in the first third of the game came in the first when Mason hit an RBI double to score junior Austen Zente, who led off with an infield single.

After Army took a six-run lead, High Point answered back with two runs in the fifth to pull to within 7-3. Sergent led off the Panther half of the fifth with a solo home run, his fourth of the season. HPU then added a run later in the inning on a pop up in foul territory when the Army third baseman stepped into the dugout with runners on second and third, allowing Mason to advance home.

Senior Jeremy Johnson provided valuable innings out of the bullpen for HPU, entering the game in the third inning and shutting down the Army offense. Johnson pitched a career-high 5-1/3 innings and allowed just two hits and a walk while striking out three.

High Point managed to put runners on base in each of the final three innings but the Panthers were unable to cut into the Army lead. HPU’s best chance came in the seventh when Mason came up with one out and the bases loaded but the junior hit into a double play to end the threat.

The Panthers return to action on Friday, March 10, when they travel to Georgia for a three-game weekend series at Kennesaw State.

One thought on “HPU baseball falls to Army in series finale, 7-5

  1. Not going to win many hitting .232. They have not had a competent hitting coach there in in the past 7 years.

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