HPU Baseball Loses On The Road At East Carolina, 7-4

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell on the road to East Carolina by a score of 7-4 on Tuesday night in Greenville, North Carolina. Senior Kyle Brandenburg and junior Spencer Angelis each had a home run in the loss.

“Tonight came down to one offensive situation and one defensive situation,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We loaded the bases in the first inning and couldn’t drive in a run. Then in the sixth inning we hit a two-run home run and came back out and put the first two guys on base for free. It came down to those two situations and we did not execute in a way that would allow us to win the game.”

Graduate student Jon Carlson took the loss for the Panthers after giving up four runs, three earned, on eight hits and a walk over five innings. The left-hander recorded four strikeouts in the loss and dropped to 1-2 on the season.

Davis Kirkpatrick got the win for East Carolina to improve to 2-1 on the season. Kirkpatrick pitched 5-1/3 innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits and four walks while striking out 10.

High Point falls to 28-20 on the season with the loss to the Pirates. The win improves ECU’s record to 30-23 on the season.

East Carolina took advantage of an error by freshman Alex Gross in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead early in the contest. Charlie Yorgen laid a bunt to first which Gross mishandled allowing the ECU leadoff man to reach base. He then came around to score on a sacrifice squeeze off the bat of Dylan Brown to put the Pirates in front by a run.

The Pirates doubled their lead with a run in the third to go ahead 2-0. Hunter Allen led off the inning with a single and came around to score on a double into the gap by Zach Houchins.

East Carolina then added two runs in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Allen and an RBI single by Yorgen to push its lead to 4-0.

High Point broke through for a run in the fifth to pull back within three of the Pirates at 4-1. Junior Dane McDermott was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Angelis.

One inning later, Brandenburg pulled the Panthers back within one with a two-run home run, his third of the season. The HPU third baseman swung at a 1-1 pitch and delivered it over the fence in right for the home run. Sophomore Dominic Fazio walked to lead off the inning and came in to score on the Brandenburg homer.

East Carolina came back with three runs in the bottom of the sixth to reopen the lead to four at 7-3 on a three-run home run by Drew Reynolds. The ECU designated hitter got a hold of a pitch from freshman Peter Ripke and hit it out to right for the three-run shot.

Angelis got High Point’s final run of the night in the ninth with his third home run of the season. The junior hit a solo shot over the wall in left to make the score 7-4.

Angelis and Brandenburg accounted for six of HPU’s seven runs as each finished the game with two RBI and a run scored.

High Point returns home to Williard Stadium this weekend to take on UNC Asheville in the final conference series of the season. The Panthers and Bulldogs will open the series on Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m., then will play again on Friday, May 16 before closing out the series on Saturday, May 17.