Leading 6-2 in the fifth inning, High Point allowed Liberty to score five times and grab a lead the Flames never relinquished, in defeating the Panthers, 11-9, Saturday afternoon at Worthington Stadium.

With the win in the middle game of the Big South three-game series, the Flames move to 13-10 in the conference and 36-18 overall.  The Panthers, meanwhile, fall to 13-10 also in the conference and 25-30 overall.

The victory was the Flames' 36th of the season and ties the Division I school mark for wins with both the 2005 and 2000 Liberty squads. High Point remains one win shy of equaling their Division I victory mark of 26 reached in 2002.

High Point opened the scoring in the top half of the third with four runs on two home runs.  Dustin Holtzman opened the inning with a home run to right, his second of the series and fourth of the season.   Later in the inning, Billy Aguiar hit a two-out three-run home run to right field to put the Panthers up, 4-0.  It was the catcher's third of the season.
 
Liberty responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 4-2. The Flames opened the inning by loading the bases as Phil John singled and both Errol Hollinger and Chad Miller walked.  Michael Just plated the first Liberty run with a sacrifice fly to score John, while Phillip Laurent followed with a run-scoring single.
 
In the top of the fourth, the Panthers came right back with two more runs to extend their advantage to 6-2.  Holtzman singled and Alfie Wheeler walked to begin the frame.  After a sacrifice bunt moved both runners up a base, Chris Norwood's ground out scored Holtzman.  Two batters later, Wheeler came home on a single by Aguiar.
 
The Flames would gain control in the fifth scoring five runs on five hits.  Miller began the rally with a walk and moved to second on a single by Just.  After an out, Laurent doubled to the right center field gap plating the both runners.  Two batters later, P.K. Keller singled to score Laurent and close the gap to 6-5. Derek Bennion followed with a single to chase home Keller and knot the contest at 6-6.  Bennion then stole second and scored on the third consecutive Flames' single by John to give Liberty a 7-6 lead.
 
In the sixth, the Flames added two more to go up, 9-6.  Miller walked again to lead off the inning and moved to second on a walk to Aaron Grijalva. Miller advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Patrick Gaillard.  Keller followed with a RBI single to right.
 
The teams each put runs on the board in the seventh.  In HPU's half of the inning, Mark Shorey scored on a RBI single by J. Williams.  In the home half, Liberty added two on a two-run triple to left center field by Just for an 11-7 advantage.
 
After three-consecutive singles loaded the bases in the top of the ninth, High Point's Shorey scored on a fielding error by the first baseman and another run came home on a double play to cut the Liberty advantage to 11-9.   However, the next batter flied out to end the contest and cut the Panther rally short.
 
Flames' reliever Tim John runs his record to 6-3 on the season by allowing four runs, two earned, on six hits over the game's last six innings.  Ryan Page started for Liberty and allowed five runs on seven hits while lasting just three innings.

Panthers' starter, Matt Christie, the first of four pitchers for High Point, took the loss to drop to 3-2 on the year, yielding seven runs on eight hits over five innings. Other hurlers that competed for HPU on Saturday included Brandon Moore, Chris Marks and Zach Scott.
 
Aguiar paced the High Point offense going 4-for-5 with four RBI and two runs scored, with first baseman Randy Schwartz, Holtzman and Shorey each adding two hits for the Panthers. Keller went 4-for-5 with two RBI, while Just and Laurent each had two hits and drove in three runs each for the Flames.

High Point and Liberty will meet in the final game of the regular season for both teams tomorrow afternoon at Worthington Stadium with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The winner of Sunday's rubber-game will finish no worse than fourth in the Big South standings.