• High Point lost at UNC Wilmington by a score of 11-6 on Wednesday and is now 26-16 for the season.
• Sophomore Austen Zente hit his second career home run and had three RBI for the Panthers.
• HPU drew 10 walks at the plate in the loss.
WILMINGTON, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell on the road at UNC Wilmington by a score of 11-6 on Wednesday night in Wilmington, N.C. Sophomore Austen Zente drove in three runs for the Panthers in the loss.
Senior Michael Hennessey took the loss and dropped to 3-3 on the season. The right-hander allowed eight earned runs on 10 hits and a walk in four innings while striking out three.
UNC Wilmington right-hander Gunner Deal allowed one earned run on a hit and two walks and struck out two in 1-2/3 innings of relief work to get the win and improve to 1-1.
High Point falls to 26-16 overall with the loss while UNCW improves to 28-10 on the season.
The Seahawks got on the board in the first as Steven Linkous led off with a triple and Brian Mims followed with a two-run shot to left, his eighth home run of the season, to put UNCW up 2-0.
Wilmington added three runs in the fourth on sacrifice flies by Zack Canada and Kennard McDowell and an RBI triple by Robbie Thorburn to go up 5-0. UNC Wilmington added four runs in the following inning to extend its lead to 9-0. Casey Golden drove in two with an RBI single and both Thorburn and McDowell added RBI on a single and a double respectively.
High Point came back with three runs in the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 9-3. The Panthers’ first two runs came home when Golden dropped a fly ball by junior Luke Parker and added a throwing error with a high throw to third. Sophomore Spencer Brown then brought in the third run with a sacrifice fly to score Zente.
HPU continued to cut into the Seahawk lead with another run in the seventh, making the score 9-4. Jackson was hit by a pitch and moved to third on a single by junior Drew Fopeano before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Zente.
UNC Wilmington pushed the lead back to seven at 11-4 with two runs in the seventh to bring the score to 11-4. After two quick outs, the Seahawks got back-to-back singles and a walk to lead the bases for Mims, who singled to drive in his third and fourth runs of the night.
With High Point down 11-4 in the ninth, Zente blasted a two-run home run, his second of the season, to make the final score 11-6. The outfielder turned on a 0-1 pitch and hit a high shot over the wall in left for his second career home run.
Zente finished 1-2 with two walks, three RBI and two runs scored for the Panthers. Fopeano finished 2-4 at the plate with a run scored and was the only HPU player to record multiple hits in the contest.
The Panthers will be off this weekend for finals before returning to action at Davidson on Wednesday, May 4, in Davidson, N.C. First pitch in the contest is set for 6 p.m.