• High Point clinched the weekend series against Winthrop with a 4-2 win over the Eagles on Friday.
• Junior Andre Scrubb struck out 10 to earn his fifth win of the season.
• Sophomore Spencer Brown went 2-3 at the plate and hit his first collegiate home run.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team clinched its seventh-straight series with a 4-2 win over Winthrop on Friday night at Williard Stadium. Junior Andre Scrubb struck out 10 in seven innings to earn his fifth win of the season.
“This was a well-played game but was by no means our best game,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “This team stayed the course and played the way they do. Andre Scrubb striking out the side with the bases loaded in the first was huge, JJ Woodard came up big with the go-ahead RBI in the seventh and we then we end the game on a double play when Austen Zente made a great play in right. It’s neat to have a team that figures out a different way to win each night. Now we are in a position to sweep and I know we will come out aggressively pursuing that tomorrow.”
Scrubb has won five-straight starts and is now 5-1 on the season. The right-hander allowed two earned runs on six hits and three walks while striking out 10. Redshirt-senior Joe Goodman pitched the final two innings and struck out three to earn his team-best third save of the season.
Zach Sightler took the loss on the mound for Winthrop, dropping to 3-1 in 2016. Sightler gave up three runs, two earned, on nine hits and two walks in 6-1/3 innings of work.
The win is High Point’s sixth straight and its 17th in the past 19 games. The Panthers are now 18-5 overall and off to their best-ever start in the Big South with a 5-0 conference mark. Winthrop falls to 11-12 overall and 0-2 in conference play with the loss.
The two teams traded runs in four consecutive half innings starting in the bottom of the fourth. High Point ended the scoreless stalemate on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Hunter Lee after the Panthers loaded the bases on an error, a single by junior Drew Fopeano and an error on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Spencer Brown.
The Eagles tied the game back up at 1-1 in the following half inning on an RBI single by Brandon Fite but High Point retook the lead in the bottom of the fifth on a two-out RBI single by junior Drew Fopeano. Winthrop then tied the game again in the sixth on an RBI single by Jace Whitley.
High Point took the lead for good in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by freshman JJ Woodard to make the score 3-2. Senior Dominic Fazio led off the inning with a double and was run for by junior Luke Parker. A wild pitch allowed Parker to advance to third and Woodard brought him home with the pinch-hit sacrifice.
Brown gave the Panthers a little more breathing room with a solo home run in the eighth, his first collegiate home run. The catcher turned on the first pitch and hit a towering shot over the wall in left to put HPU in front, 4-2.
Fopeano and Brown combined to 4-6 with two RBI at the bottom of the High Point order as both finished 2-3. Fazio and junior Chris Clare joined Fopeano and Brown with multiple hits as Fazio went 2-4 with two doubles and Clare finished 2-5 with a double.
The Panthers will try and earn their third-straight weekend sweep on Saturday, March 26, when they take on the Eagles in the third and final game of the weekend series. First pitch in the finale is set for 3 p.m.