Site: High Point, N.C. (Truist Point)
Score: UNCG 4, High Point 2
W: Austin Koehn (1-0), L: Grey Lyttle (0-2), S: Kross Robinson (3)
Records: UNCG 341, HPU 1-3
Next HPU Event: Saturday, Feb. 27 — vs. UNCG (DH) (Truist Point, High Point, N.C.), 1 p.m.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team dropped the series opener with UNCG at Truist Point 4-2 on Saturday evening (Feb. 27). The two teams were supposed to meet Friday afternoon to begin the series but the game was postponed due to unforeseen circumstances with the umpiring crew.
High Point starter Grey Lyttle had another solid performance despite the loss, throwing five innings and giving up five hits and three runs. The graduate student only walked two and struck out eight for a career-high.
Lyttle’s classmate Joe Johnson and freshman Peyton Carr each had a pair of base hits in the game, the first two of Carr’s career. Johnson has now hit safely in each of the first four games of the season and in the last 11 he’s played in, extending his career-long hitting streak. HPU totaled seven hits in the game to outhit the Spartans by one, the third time out of four games this season the Purple and White have outhit their opponent.
The Panthers also played a clean game defensively, committing zero errors and making multiple highlight-reel-worthy plays in the field. Travis Holt showed off his range at short with five assists from all over the infield – a season-high for HPU. Johnson made a sliding catch in left for the third out of the seventh, as did Sam Zayicek for the first out of the second. Catcher Justin Wilkins made his second start in as many games and showed off his arm strength from behind the plate to throw out the only runner that tested him.
“It was another good Friday night ballgame,” head coach Craig Cozart said after the game. “We just have to figure out the little pieces that we’re missing to get our offense going a little bit but I thought we were pretty good on the mound again. We played outstanding defense with lots of great plays tonight. Wilkins threw a guy out on a bounced breaking ball, Holt had several special plays up the middle, and Johnson made a sliding catch along with Zayicek in center field. We outhit them and didn’t make any errors but unfortunately, we were only able to push across two runs. UNCG is a good ballclub and we’re looking forward to 18 good innings tomorrow.”
UNCG got right to business in the first inning, starting the game off with a triple to right-center on the first pitch of the game. The leadoff batter then came around to score on a single in the next at bat before Lyttle struck out back-to-back batters and induced a popup to end the inning.
High Point immediately responded in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff extra-base hit of its own when Brady Pearre doubled down the line in left and Johnson moved him over to third when he reached on an infield single. The second baseman made a nice sliding play to knock the ball down but couldn’t get the ball out of his glove in time to throw out Johnson to give the Panthers runners on the corners with no outs. Both runners advanced on the next pitch, scoring Pearre, after it bounced in front of the plate and past the catcher but that was all the offense could muster as three straight outs left Johnson on second.
Lyttle sent the side down in order in the second with two more strikeouts and HPU took the lead in the bottom half when Wilkins plated Carr. Carr singled up the middle to the second baseman who made another great play to stop the ball from getting into the outfield but Carr beat out the throw. Carr advanced to third on a double down the left-field line from Adam Stuart and scored when Wilkins grounded out to short to give the Purple and White a 2-1 lead.
The lead didn’t last long as UNCG put up a two-spot in the top of the third. The nine-hole hitter started the inning with a perfect bunt down the first-base line and beat the flip to first from Lyttle with a head-first slide to reach safely. He later came around to score on another triple from the Spartans’ leadoff hitter to tie the game. UNCG took the lead two pitches later on a sacrifice fly and never looked back.
High Point went down in order in the bottom of the third and didn’t get much going again until the fifth inning. Pearre drew a one-out walk and then made it to third when Holt reached on an error by the shortstop with two outs. Holt stole second to put two runners in scoring position but neither could advance to home as a popup to first ended the threat and left both runners on.
Each team got a runner into scoring position once through the sixth and seventh innings before the Spartans added an insurance run in the eighth. The cleanup batter stepped into the batter’s box with three strikeouts in three at bats and promptly made up for it by taking Dylan Decker over the wall in right on Decker’s second pitch of the day.
HPU tried to answer in the bottom of the eighth and had two runners on with two outs but UNCG brought on its closer for the four-out save and only needed two pitches to get out of the inning with a grounder to short. High Point looked to start a rally in the ninth and had the tying run to the plate when Pearre reached on a dropped fly ball by the first baseman, the second time in four games that an opposing infielder has dropped a fly ball while leading in the ninth inning. Pearre never made it further than first as a fly ball to right and a strikeout at a pitch in the dirt ended the Panthers’ rally before it got started.
The two teams are back in action at Truist Point again tomorrow (Feb. 28) with a doubleheader to make up for Friday’s postponement. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 1 p.m., with game two beginning approximately 45 minutes after the completion of game one. UNCG will bat second as the ‘home’ team for both games.