HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team opened its weekend series against No. 29 Campbell with a 3-1 win on Friday night at Williard Stadium. Senior Jacob Newberry and redshirt-junior Sean Townsley combined to hold Campbell to just one run on five hits in the game.
“This was a good, high-level ballgame tonight,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “It was nice to scrap out three early runs against Ryan Mattes who gave Campbell a great outing. I am extremely proud of Newberry and Townsley and the way they made the early lead stand up. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but I was very pleased with our performance here tonight.”
Campbell entered the weekend eighth in the nation in scoring at 7.6 runs per game, but was unable to create much offense against the HPU pitching duo of Newberry and Townsley.
Newberry allowed just one run in 6-2/3 innings of work to improve to 3-2 on the season. The senior gave up five hits and four walks while striking out five. Townsley pitched the final 2-1/3 innings for his second save of the season. The left hander gave up no runs and no hits, walking just one while striking out three.
Senior Devin Bujnovsky went 3-4 at the plate with an RBI to lead the High Point offense along with sophomore Spencer Angelis who went 2-4 and scored a run. Sophomore Dane McDermott finished with an RBI and a run scored for the Panthers.
HPU improves to 23-20 overall and 10-6 in the Big South with a win over the 29th-ranked Camels. Campbell drops to 37-9 overall and 14-5 in the Big South.
High Point scored twice in the bottom of the second to take an early 2-0 lead. Graduate student Adam Barry reached on an error and scored the first run of the game three batters later when McDermott hit a grounder to first and beat out the throw on a potential double play, allowing Barry to score from third. The second baseman advanced to third on a single by senior Willie Medina then scored the second run of the frame on a single up the middle by Bujnovsky.
The Panthers added a third run in the bottom of the next inning to go ahead 3-0 after three. High Point loaded the bases with one out as Angelis hit a double deep into the left-center gap, senior Ryan Retz was hit by a pitch and Barry reached on an error. Sophomore Cody Manzella then drove in the only run of the frame when his line drive back up the middle ricocheted off the pitcher right to the Campbell third baseman who made the play at first.
The Panther lead remained 3-0 until the top of the sixth inning when Campbell got on the board with its only run of the game on a two-out single by Michael Delucia. The Camels had runners at the corners with no outs after back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Newberry got two outs with a strikeout and pop-up to short before Delucia hit a single back up the middle to Brent Graham from third.
High Point and Campbell return to Williard Stadium for the second game of their three-game series on Saturday, May 4, at 6 p.m. The Panthers will try and clinch their third-straight conference series with a win over Campbell. Redshirt-junior Jaime Schultz will get the start for HPU.