Brandon McDowell struck out five in six innings, while Alan Beck went 2-for-3 with five RBI to lead Western Carolina to an 11-1 home opener over High Point Wednesday afternoon at Childress Field/Hennon Stadium.

The Catamounts (1-2) have now won their last five home openers while High Point falls to 0-4.

McDowell recorded his first career win. He pitched five innings and allowed just three hits with an earned run, no walks and a career-high six strikeouts. A quartet of Catamount pitchers each threw a scoreless inning to close out the game.

With a stiff wind throughout the game, High Point jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second with a leadoff, first-pitch home run to center by Ken Keesee.

Western rallied with four runs in the bottom of the third, thanks to back-to-back home runs by Beck and Todd Buchanan. Beck's blast to center drove in Matt Nelson, who got WCU's first hit of the game, and Todd Roper, who walked. Buchanan followed with a line-drive homer to center as well.

The Catamounts added runs in the fourth and sixth innings to take a 6-1 lead.

Western added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh, and capped the scoring with three unearned runs in the eighth.

Nick Thompson led the way for the Panthers with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate. Keesee and Matt Gorman added High Point's other two hits. Chris Hyatt (0-1) picked up the loss, going 4.2 innings with four hits, five runs, one walk and four strikeouts. Relief pitcher Mark Shorey also had four K's with zero walks in 2.0 innings, but surrendered four hits and three runs.

The Panthers will look for some home-cooking this weekend to get back on track when they host North Carolina A&T. Both the Saturday doubleheader and Sunday's single game are set for 1:00 pm at Erath Field.