For the second consecutive night, High Point suffered a loss at Winthrop after surrendering a pair of runs in the eighth inning. The Eagles took game two by a score of 3-1, in a contest televised live on ESPNU.
 
With the win, the Eagles to 40-12 overall and 15-5 in Big South Conference play while the Panthers slipped to 24-28 and 12-8 in league games.
 
Phil Carey's two-run home run to right center field in the bottom of the eighth inning off HPU reliever Tom Boleska broke a 1-1 tie and gave fellow freshman Alex Wilson, who struck out a career-best 16 runners, his 11th win of the year.

The game featured a pitcher's duel between HPU sophomore Eammon Portice and Wilson. Wilson improved to 11-2 on the year with eight strong innings of work. Portice pitched seven complete innings allowing just one run on six hits with seven strikeouts.
 
Wilson got rolling early as he struck out the side in the first inning.  He ran that streak to eight HPU batters retired via strikeout before a Panther hitter was finally retired on a batted ball.
 
The Eagles threatened in the bottom of the first inning as Chris Carrara led off with a single to center field off Portice.  After Heath Rollins popped out and Jacob Dempsey went down swinging, Carrara stole second and third base.  Tommy Lentz then drew a walk and stole second, but Portice got out of the jam by striking out Carey.
 
Wilson struck out the side again in the second inning, but not before High Point put runners on second and third with two outs. Billy Aguiar flared a single to right center field to begin the Panthers' second inning.  After Matt Gantner struck out swinging, Randy Schwartz worked Wilson for a walk with Aguiar moving to second.  Following a Ryan Laboy strike out, both runners moved up on a wild pitch, before Dustin Holtzman became Wilson's sixth victim on a called third strike to end the threat.
 
The Winthrop freshman extended his strike out streak to eight after whiffing the first two hitters in the third before designated hitter Chris Norwood lined out the Carrara at second for the third out.
 
Senior catcher Alan Robbins ignited the Eagles' offense in the third with a towering solo home run to right field to put Winthrop up 1-0.  Carrara followed with a single to center and stole second as Rollins went down swinging.  He moved over to third on a long fly ball out to right off the bat of Dempsey, but was stranded at third.
 
High Point quickly tied things up in the fourth as Mark Shorey drew a lead off walk and was sacrificed to second by Aguiar.  Gantner promptly drove him home with a first-pitch double to right center field. Wilson got out of further trouble by striking out Schwartz and Laboy to end the inning.
 
Wilson was able to pitch out of trouble in the sixth inning after Aguiar reached first on a one-out throwing error by third baseman Mitch Saum and then moved into scoring position when Gantner was hit by a pitch. Wilson again quieted the HPU bats by striking out Schwartz and Laboy..
 
With Lentz on third base and two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Holtzman, the Panthers' second baseman, came up with a run-saving play as he robbed Matt Repec of a single on a diving stop of a grounder to end the frame. Lentz had reached on a one-out double to left center field and moved to third following a sharp ground out to first by Carey.
 
High Point threatened again in the eighth inning, but Wilson was again able to avoid trouble as he struck out two hitters, including Big South batting leader Mark Shorey, and got an inning ending ground ball with runners on first and second.  Norwood led off with a single and with one out moved to second when Wilson issued an intentional pass to Gantner.  Wilson got his 16th strikeout by whiffing Ryan Laboy and then induced Holtzman to ground out to second.
 
Wilson gave way to closer Jonathan Settle in ninth inning.  After getting pinch hitter J. Williams out on ground out to open the inning, Holtzman drilled a double to the gap in right center field.  Settle then retired Chris Marks on a grounder to short and then struck out Jeff Cowan to end the game and earn his ninth save and second in two nights.

Boleska (3-7) suffered the loss for High Point. Five different HPU players recorded hits with Gantner driving in the team's only run.  All nine starters for the Panthers were retired atleast once by a strikeout and Cowan's had his 28-game on-base streak halted after going 0-for-5 with four strikeouts on the night.

The Panthers and Eagles will conclude their three-game weekend set with the finale at 2 p.m. on Sunday.