• High Point opened its weekend series against Winthrop with a 7-2 win at Williard on Thursday.
• Junior Chris Clare and sophomore Carson Jackson both finished 3-5 at the plate for the Panthers.
• The win is HPU’s fifth in a row and 16th in the past 18 games. The team is off to its best start in its Div. I history at 17-5.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team beat Winthrop by a score of 7-2 on Thursday night at Williard Stadium to open a three-game series against the Eagles. The win is the Panthers’ fifth in a row and their 16th in the past 18 games.
“It’s great to start off the series with a win tonight,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “This was our brand of baseball tonight. It is the way we need to play. We got great pitching, good defense and another big inning offensively. These guys are playing with a lot of confidence and I am looking forward to seeing that continue.”
Redshirt-senior Scot Hoffman got the win to improve to 2-2 on the mound for the Panthers. Hoffman pitched six innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on seven hits and a walk while striking out four.
Sam Kmiec gave up five runs, three earned, in six innings to fall to 3-3. Kmiec gave up 11 hits and two walks and struck out five.
High Point improves to 17-5 overall and 4-0 in the Big South with the win while the Eagles drop to .500 overall at 11-11 and is 0-1 in the Big South.
Winthrop picked up a run in the top of the first as Tyler Asbil singled to leadoff the contest and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Mark Lowrie.
The Panthers scored twice in the third to pull ahead, 2-1, thanks to RBI singles by senior Dominic Fazio and sophomore Carson Jackson. Sophomore Hunter Lee and junior Josh Greene both walked in the inning, half to Kmiec’s total for the season entering the game, and both came around to score for HPU.
The Eagles came right back with a run in the next half inning to knot the game at 2-2. Grant English hit a double to drive in Jace Whitley, who reached on a wild pitch after striking out.
High Point took the lead again with a run in the fifth on an RBI single by senior Tim Mansfield. Junior Chris Clare scored on the Mansfield single to give HPU the 3-2 lead.
Four runs by the Panthers in the seventh extended the High Point lead to five at 7-2. HPU loaded the bases on a single by Clare, an error on a ground ball by Greene and a walk by Fazio. Jackson drove in Clare with an RBI single then both Greene and Fazio scored on a throwing error by WU’s Grant English and sophomore Austen Zente drove in Jackson for the fourth run on a sacrifice fly.
Jackson and Clare both finished 3-5 at the plate while Fazio went 2-4 with a walk. Jackson had two RBI and a run scored, Clare had two runs scored and Fazio had an RBI and a run scored. Seven different Panthers got a hit in the contest and each of the first five HPU batters scored at least one run.
High Point and Winthrop return to Williard Stadium on Friday, March 24, at 6 p.m. for the second game of their three game series. The Panthers can clinch their fifth-straight weekend series with a win over the Eagles.