• High Point completed its third weekend sweep of the season with a 7-0 win over Radford on Sunday.
• Senior Dominic Fazio went 4-4 with a career-high two home runs, four RBI and four runs scored on Senior Day.
• Freshman Andrew Gottfried allowed no runs in a career-high 7-2/3 innings of work to earn his fifth win of the season.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – Senior Dominic Fazio put on a show for Senior Day as the High Point University baseball team finished off its sweep of Radford with a 7-0 win on Sunday afternoon at Williard Stadium. Fazio had four hits, including two home runs, to lead the Panthers.
“This was a great day because sometimes it is hard to put together a complete game on Sunday and this was probably our cleanest weekend in quite sometime,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “Dominic Fazio was an absolute stud with the bat on his Senior Day and our defense today was unbelievable. The double plays we turned today were special. I am proud of our guys effort and that they were able to come out with all the distractions around graduation and get the sweep.”
Freshman Andrew Gottfried threw 7-2/3 shutout innings to earn the win on the mound and improve to 5-4 for the season. The right-hander allowed six hits and three walks and struck out three while setting a new career high for innings pitched.
Tyler Swarmer suffered the loss for Radford, falling to 3-4 on the season. Swarmer allowed three earned runs on six hits and a walk and struck out two in four innings.
The weekend sweep is the Panthers’ third of the season and it moves the team to 29-17 overall and 12-6 in the Big South. High Point’s previous sweeps came against Rider at home and at UNC Asheville. Radford drops to 14-33 overall and 6-12 in conference play with the loss.
Fazio got the game going in the second inning with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the frame for the Panthers. The HPU third-baseman then struck again in the fourth with his second home run of the game and third of the season, this time a two-run shot to extend the High Point lead to 3-0.
The Panthers tacked on two runs in the sixth inning and once again Fazio played a role in both runs, driving in junior Chris Clare for the first with an RBI single then scoring the second on an sacrifice fly by sophomore Hunter Lee after stealing second and advancing to third on an error.
Sophomore Austen Zente pushed the HPU lead to 6-0 in the seventh, scoring on a wild pitch after doubling and stealing third, his team-high 22nd steal of the season. One inning later, the Panthers scored their final run and Fazio was once again involved, coming home on Lee’s second sacrifice fly of the day.
Fazio finished 4-4 with two home runs, four RBI and four runs scored on the day. The senior set new career highs in hits and runs scored and matched his career high in RBI. Fazio is the first HPU hitter to hit two home runs in a game this season and the first since Josh Spano hit two at Winthrop last season.
Seven different HPU players recorded a hit in the contest, including Clare, who went 2-4 with a double and two runs scored, and Lee, who finished 1-2 with two RBI.
The High Point defense was excellent all weekend, recording no errors in the three wins over the Highlanders. The Panthers turned four double plays on Sunday, including one in the eighth where Clare made a diving stop behind the second base bag and flipped the ball to Lee from his stomach.
High Point returns to action on Tuesday, May 10, when the team welcomes Wake Forest to Williard Stadium for a midweek matchup. The Panthers lost to WFU by a score of 8-2 earlier this season in Winston-Salem, N.C. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.