Gottfried shines in HPU baseball’s 5-1 win over Charleston Southern

• High Point opened the weekend with a 5-1 win over Charleston Southern on Friday at Williard Stadium.
• Sophomore Andrew Gottfried threw six shutout innings with seven strikeouts in his return to the rotation.
• Redshirt-senior Tim Mansfield went 3-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored while senior Josh Greene finished 2-4 with two RBI to lead the HPU offense.

HIGH POINT, N.C. – Sophomore Andrew Gottfried returned to the rotation and pitched six scoreless innings to lead the High Point University baseball team to a 5-1 win over Charleston Southern on Friday night at Williard Stadium.

In his first start since April 7, Gottfried allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out seven in his six innings of work and improved to 3-2 on the season. The sophomore has now struck out at least seven in each of his past three starts.

Sophomore Matt Hodges pitched the final three innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk, to pick up his team-high fifth save of the season.

The Panthers improve to 23-18 overall and 10-9 in the Big South with the win while Charleston Southern drops to 21-21 overall and 9-10 in conference play.

“It was great to see Andrew Gottfried back out on the mound tonight,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “He was really good out there tonight and we played tremendous defense behind him. It was a complete game. We got production from up and down the lineup. A four-run inning, good pitching and good defense is a solid formula for a win.”

High Point pushed four across in the third to take a lead over the Buccaneers. A single by sophomore Conner Dunbar and back-to-back walks by juniors Jordan Sergent and Austen Zente loaded the bases for redshirt-senior Tim Mansfield who snuck a single through the drawn-in infield to drive in the first two runs of the night. Senior Josh Greene then doubled the lead with a two-run single to right to make the score 4-0.

Junior Hunter Lee added an insurance run in the eighth inning with his fifth home run of the season. The HPU second baseman managed to turn on an 0-2 pitch and hit a line drive just inside the pole in right.

Charleston Southern got on the board with a run in the ninth on a two-out RBI double by Kyle Vesnesky that brought the final score to 5-1.

Mansfield finished 3-4 with a double, two RBI and a run scored while Greene ended the day 2-4 with two RBI. Zente reached base three times out of the leadoff position, going 1-2 with two walks on the day.

High Point and Charleston Southern will continue their series on Saturday, May 6, at Williard Stadium. The Panthers can clinch their fifth-straight series win with a victory over the Buccaneers. First pitch is set for 6 p.m., and the team will honor its five seniors in a ceremony prior to the contest.