Playing in their final home game of the season, the High Point Panther baseball team nearly pulled off the upset of No. 19-ranked Wake Forest on Wednesday dropping a disappointing 3-1 decision at Erath Field.

With the loss, HPU slips to 24-26 overall and finishes with a 15-13 record at home for the season. Wake Forest improved to 32-15 with the victory, earning the season sweep of a two-game set with the Panthers.

Both teams struggled early at the plate as the teams combined for just three hits over the first seven innings of play.

HPU sophomore Bubba O'Donnell, making just his second start of the season, worked seven strong innings on the mound allowing no runs on just one hit while striking out a career-best eight batters. O'Donnell left at the end of the seventh inning with HPU in front 1-0. A quartet of WFU hurlers combined to limit High Point to just two hits over the same stretch led by Justin Keadle's perfect two innings of work.

The Panthers posted the first run of the contest in the fifth inning when Ryan Laboy led off with a double to left-center and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by senior Dustin Holtzman. Fellow senior Justin Pinyan followed with a sacrifice fly to right allowing Laboy to score.

With one out in the eighth, HPU reliever Brandon Moore hit Evan Ocheltree with a pitch and surrendered a single to Allan Dykstra putting runners on the corners. Back-to-back wild pitches from Moore allowed Ocheltree to score tying the game at one. Moore gave way to senior Chris Marks who got the Panthers out of the inning, but no before surrendering an RBI-single to Dustin Hood that put Wake in front, 2-1.

High Point loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth with just one out but WFU reliever Josh Ellis induced an inning-ending double play to thwart the Panther threat.

Wake added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on an RBI-double from Ocheltree. Deacon closer Ben Hunter worked a scoreless ninth to pick-up his 13th save of the year.

Moore (1-2) took the loss for High Point after pitching just one-third of an inning and giving up a pair of runs. Greg Young pitched one inning of relief to earn his second win of the season for Wake.

Senior Mark Shorey led the HPU offense in his final home game going 2-for-3 with a double. Freshman Jeff Cowan posted a pair of hits to extend his current on-base streak to 26 games.

Ocheltree paced the Deacons going 1-for-4 at the plate while scoring a run and driving in another.

HPU now hits the road for back-to-back Big South Conference road series to end the regular season. The Panthers visit league leader Winthrop this weekend. The conference's top two squads face off beginning on Friday at 8 p.m. at Winthrop Ballpark. Saturday's HPU-WU contest is scheduled to be televised live on ESPNU starting at 8 p.m.