Junior hurler Bubba O'Donnell pitched a complete game shutout to lead High Point to an 8-0 victory over East Tennessee State on Saturday afternoon at Coy O. Williard, Sr. Stadium.

With the win, HPU snapped a two-game losing skid and improved to 8-10 on the year. ETSU slipped to 11-6 overall after being shutout for the first time in over a year.

O'Donnell (2-2) recorded his first career complete game fanning a personal high nine batters while scattering just five hits.

In addition to stellar pitching, High Point's offense pounded out a season-high 15 hits on the day against a quartet of ETSU pitchers. All nine batters in the Panther line-up recorded a hit with five players tallying multiple hits led by a 3-for-4 performance by freshman Max Fulginiti in his first career start.

"Bubba (O'Donnell) was exceptional," said HPU head coach Sal Bando, Jr. "He was throwing three pitches for strikes and getting ahead of hitters and when he does that he is tough to hit. Our hitters did a good job of putting the bat on the ball. We had runners in motion and that opened up some holes and that is when we are at our best. It was a good win, but come tomorrow nobody's gonna care about today. It is important that we show up and give our best effort and win the series."

The Bucs best opportunity to score came in the first inning. With two outs, Anthony Russell singled then C.J. Lee reached base following a throwing error on a ground ball. Justin Aughey walked to load the bases, but O'Donnell ended the threat with his second strikeout of the frame. East Tennessee State would only have one more base runner reach second base for the rest of the game.

High Point posted its first run of the game in the third inning. Fulginiti led off with a single and moved to third on a single by Alfie Wheeler. Robby Kuzdale followed with an RBI fielder's choice to shortstop.

In the fifth, HPU broke things open plating four runs on five hits. Randy Schwartz, Fulginiti and Wheeler all recorded singles to start the frame with Wheeler's hit scoring a run. Kuzdale moved runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt followed by a single from Jeff Cowan that scored a pair of runs. After a groundout moved Cowan to second, Billy Alvino closed the scoring with an RBI single.

The Panthers added three runs in the seventh inning to secure the final margin. Kuzdale, Chris Norwood, J. Williams and Matt Schlanger all tallied hits in the frame.

ETSU starter Caleb Flafenhein (5-1) suffered his first loss of the season allowing 10 hits and five runs in just 4.2 innings of work. Russell (three) and Danny Petro (two) accounted for all five of the Bucs hits on the day.

HPU and ETSU will play the rubber game of their weekend series on Sunday at 1 p.m., as senior Tony Flores takes the mound for High Point against the Bucs' Todd Caldwell.