The High Point University baseball team made a late charge but came up just short in a 2-1 loss to East Tennessee State on Friday afternoon at Coy O. Williard, Sr. Stadium in the opening game of a three-game set.

The Panthers slipped to 7-10 on the year after suffering their third one-run defeat while ETSU improved to 11-5 with the win.

"I thought we played well," said HPU head coach Sal Bando, Jr. "Our pitching and defense was really good. I thought Eammon really settled down after the first two innings and started getting ahead of hitters and getting positive results. Their guy (Langston) put on clinic though. He took just enough to keep our hitters off balance. We waited too long to make better two strike adjustments. We had a chance to tie or win the game late and you win some of those and lose some of those. I thought East Tennessee State did everything just a hair better than us and that's why they won the game."

The Buccaneers grabbed the early advantage as Troy Mendez homered over the right field fence to lead off the game. ETSU upped their lead to 2-0 with a run in the second, using a trio of ground-ball singles to push across a score.

After the two early scores, HPU starter Eammon Portice settled down working five scoreless innings allowing just two hits to keep the Panthers in the game. Portice (2-3) ended the day with nine strikeouts and gave up just six hits.

ETSU starter Brandon Langston (3-1) matched Portice pitch-for-pitch holding HPU off the board into the eighth inning. High Point's Robby Kuzdale led off with a single in the first off Langston who then did not surrender another hit until the seventh inning. He allowed just six hits in eight innings of work.

High Point, who stranded 11 runners on the day, got on the board in the eighth with a two-out rally. Billy Alvino singled to left and moved to second on a single by Matt Gantner. Randy Schwartz followed with an RBI single to left cutting the deficit to 2-1.

After a trio of HPU relievers kept the Bucs at bay in the ninth, the Panthers mounted a final charge in the bottom of the frame. Pinch hitter J. Williams stretched an easy roller up the middle into a double to lead off the frame against ETSU's reliever Caleb Glafenhein. Williams moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Max Fulginiti. Glafenhein then got Jeff Cowan and Chris Norwood to ground out to end the threat, picking up his fourth save of the season.

Kuzdale was the lone Panther with multiple hits on the day going 2-for-4 to lead the HPU offense. Michael Courtney and Justin Tramble both tallied a pair of hits in pacing the Bucs.

HPU and ETSU continue their weekend set with game two of the series at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Junior Bubba O'Donnell takes the hill for High Point while Glafenhein is slated to start for the Bucs.