HPU baseball grabs road win at No. 16 Wake Forest

• High Point went on the road and picked up a 5-3 win over No. 16 Wake Forest on Tuesday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C.
• The win is HPU’s first over a ranked opponent since beating No. 21 Coastal Carolina last season and its highest ranked win since beating No. 16 East Carolina in 2010.
• Junior Hunter Lee drove in two runs and finished 2-4 on the day with his sixth home run of the season.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team scored four times in the first inning and never looked back on its way to picking up a 5-3 road win at No. 16 Wake Forest on Tuesday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“To go on the road and pick up a win over a top-25 ACC team is a great accomplishment,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “This was a complete team win today. We played outstanding defense, got some very good pitching and some timely hits from guys like Hunter Lee, Josh Greene and Carson Jackson. This is something we can build on as we head into our last two series of the season.”

Sophomore Cooper Jeffers got the win and improved to 1-3 on the season for HPU. Jeffers pitched the first two innings and allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out one. All told, nine HPU pitchers combined to hold one of the top offenses in the nation to just three runs and eight hits on the day.

Drew Loepprich was charged with the loss for WFU and fell to 2-3 on the year. The right-hander allowed five runs, four earned, on six hits and a walk while also striking out six in six innings of work.

The win is High Point’s first over a ranked opponent since defeating No. 21 Coastal Carolina in the first game of a three-game series last season. Wake Forest is the highest ranked opponent that HPU has defeated since beating No. 16 East Carolina in 2010. High Point improves to 26-18 overall while Wake Forest drops to 32-15.

The Panthers jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the first inning. Senior Josh Greene drove in the first run with an RBI double then junior Carson Jackson hit a double of his own to score two. The final run of the frame for HPU came home on an RBI single from junior Hunter Lee.

After Wake Forest scored a run in the third and another in the fourth to halve the HPU lead, Lee added another run in the sixth with a solo home run, his sixth of the season.

The Demon Deacons pulled back to within two at 5-3 with a run in the bottom of the sixth, but were unable to get any closer. Sophomore Kevin Bell got the final three outs in the ninth to pick up his first career save for the Panthers.

High Point returns to Big South play this weekend with a three-game road set against the Highlanders of Radford University beginning on Friday, May 12, in Radford, Va. It will be the final Big South series of the season for the Panthers.