Sergent stifles Spartan bats in HPU baseball’s 1-0 win

• High Point earned a 1-0 shutout victory at home over UNCG, the No. 4-ranked hitting team in the nation, on Tuesday night.
• Junior Jordan Sergent pitched 7-1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits, to earn his first win at HPU.
• Senior Josh Greene drove in junior Austen Zente in the first inning for the only run of the contest.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team rode a career pitching performance by junior Jordan Sergent to a 1-0 win over inter-Triad rival UNCG on Tuesday night at Williard Stadium.

Facing the No. 4-ranked hitting team in the nation in just his second start of the season, Sergent pitched 7-1/3 scoreless innings allowing just four hits and two walks and striking out two. The left-hander escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning then allowed just three base runners the rest of the way.

“This was an outstanding pitching performance by Jordan Sergent tonight,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “I came into tonight’s game thinking that if we could get the first third of the game and be in position to win that would be great, but he was pitching so effectively and getting soft outs so I figured we would ride him as long as we could. I wasn’t expecting 7-1/3 innings, that was special.”

Sophomore Rion Murrah got the final five outs to pick up his third save of the season, allowing just one hit while striking out two.

UNCG came into the game averaging over 11 hits per game but were held to just five in the contest, the fewest in a game by the Spartans this season.

Jake Lewis took the loss for UNCG, dropping to 0-2 on the season. Lewis pitched 3-1/2 innings and allowed just one earned run on three hits and three walks while striking out two.

High Point improves to 20-16 overall with the win over the Spartans who drop to 22-14 for the season.

The lone run of the game came in the first inning when senior Josh Greene delivered an RBI single to drive in junior Austen Zente, who led off the game with a single.

The Spartans put the tying run into scoring position in both the eighth and ninth innings but were unable to push a run across in either frame. Murrah came out of the pen with a runner on second and one out and got two fly balls in the eighth then after a leadoff double to start the ninth, Murrah struck out two-straight UNCG batters before getting a ground ball to second for the final out of the night.

High Point returns to conference play this weekend with a three-game road series at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., starting on Friday, April 21. First pitch in the series opener is set for 3 p.m.