Three Home Runs Not Enough in HiToms’ Loss to Copperheads
High Point/Thomasville, NC – The High Point-Thomasville HiToms (20-13, 7-4) used a trio of solo home runs to take a late 3-2 lead but fell to the Asheboro Copperheads (18-17, 7-8) by a score of 8-3 in the third-to-last game of the Deep River Series. Matt Corder homered twice along with CJ Johnson, who added a long hitting streak with his eighth home run.
For the second night in a row, the HiToms and Copperheads’ starting pitchers dueled. Will Lancaster and Jared Mathewson combined to strikeout fifteen total batters, exiting in a 2-2 tie. Lancaster threw six frames, scattering four hits and three walks, allowing just two runs to the well-rounded Copperheads lineup. Lancaster added eight strikeouts to raise his season total to 44, tied for third-most in the Coastal Plain League.
Shortstop Matt Corder has had quite a week at the plate. The Mississippi State Bulldog has a league-best five extra base hits and three homers over the past week. In the second inning, Corder took a 1-1 pitch up and out of the ballpark to right field to lead off the game’s scoring. At the plate in a 2-2 eighth inning tie, Corder came up clutch, once again homering to right field to the HiToms their last lead of the night at 3-2.
In between the Corder blasts came another home run from CJ Johnson, his eighth of the year, extending his hitting streak to ten games in the process. Johnson was 2-5, keeping the Guilford Tech outfielder as one of the best hitting centerfielders in the Coastal Plain League.
The HiToms look to rebound in a Sunday exhibition game against the Carolina Disco Turkeys. First pitch is at 5:00pm on Sundae Sunday at Finch Field.
Courtesy of Shaemus Kreider, HiToms Director of Media