• High Point lost on the road to Wake Forest by a score of 8-3 on Tuesday.
• Sophomore Austen Zente recorded three hits and stole his 10th and 11th bases of the year for HPU
• The loss was the Panthers’ first in six games and only their second in the past 13 games.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. –The High Point University baseball team dropped an 8-3 decision to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Tuesday night. Sophomore Austen Zente went 3-4 in the game with two stolen bases for HPU.
“The first inning was interesting and after that they were just better than us in every facet of the game,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “When you get in midweek games you have to drive people in when you get the opportunity and you have to make pitches. We didn’t do either tonight.”
Senior Michael Hennessey dropped to 2-1 on the mound for High Point after giving up six runs, five earned, in three innings of work. The right-hander allowed six hits and a walk while striking out two.
Wake Forest starter Fossas suffered an injury with two outs in the first and was replaced by John McCarren, who earned the win to improve to 2-0 in 2016. McCarren pitched five innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts.
The loss is HPU’s first in six games and it drops the team’s overall record to 12-5 on the season. Wake Forest improves to 12-6 with the win.
The Panthers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with two runs in the first inning. High Point loaded the bases as junior Josh Greene was hit by a pitch, senior Dominic Fazio drew a walk and sophomore Carson Jackson hit an infield single. Junior Drew Fopeano brought home the first run with a bases-loaded walk then sophomore Austen Zente followed with an RBI single.
The HPU lead didn’t last long as Wake Forest scored four times in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back home runs by Stuart Fairchild and Gavin Sheets to go ahead, 4-2. The Demon Deacons then scored twice in the second on a single and an error and a sacrifice fly and once in the fifth on an RBI groundout to extend its lead to 7-2.
High Point got a run back in the sixth with an RBI single by junior Luke Parker, but Wake Forest answered with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning on a double steal to make the score 8-3.
Zente recorded three hits and an RBI in the loss for the Panthers and stole two bases, giving him a team-high 11 on the season. Fopeano went 2-3 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored in his first collegiate start.
High Point remains on the road for its first Big South Conference series of the season this weekend when the Panthers travel to Asheville, N.C., to play UNC Asheville beginning on Friday, March 18, at 6 p.m.