On an historic night, a near capacity crowd at Coy O. Williard Sr. Stadium saw the High Point University baseball team earn a hard-fought 4-3 win over No. 19 Coastal Carolina on Friday.

The game was the first home night game in HPU program history marking the debut of play under the recently installed lights at Williard Stadium. With the win, the Panthers improved to 19-18 overall and 6-4 in Big South action. The loss, the fourth consecutive one-run defeat for Coastal Carolina and first Big South loss, dropped the Chanticleers to 28-7, 6-1.

"Without question, the lights, the team that was here and the crowd made it feel like a playoff game," said HPU head coach Sal Bando, Jr. "It was easy for me because I didn't have to worry about motivating the team. It kind of took care of itself. I'm glad they rose to the occasion."

The two squads combined for six runs in the first inning before both pitching squads got on track allowing just one more run over the final eight frames.

High Point starter Eammon Portice (4-5) earned the victory allowing four hits and three runs (all unearned) over six innings while striking out a season-best 11 batters. Portice recorded strikeouts for nine of the first 12 outs of the game including a stretch of five straight outs.

Glenn Jones worked a pair of scoreless innings of relief for HPU and closer Tom Boleska earned his fourth save of the year after pitching the ninth.

Andy DeLaGarza (8-1) suffered his first loss of the year for CCU after surrendering four runs on a career high 12 hits in seven innings.

The Chants got things started scoring a pair of runs in the top of the first. Dom Duggan reached third on an error by HPU centerfielder Pablo Rosario and scored on an RBI double by Chris Raber. Following a pair of walks loaded the bases, Raber scored on a two-out balk by Portice.

HPU answered quickly in the bottom of the first, plating four runs on five hits. Jeff Cowan and Bill Manion recorded back-to-back one out singles. Cowan then scored and Manion advanced to third on a throwing error by the Coastal catcher after executing a successful double-steal. Billy Alvino followed with an RBI single and Chris Norwood drove in another run with a triple. Eric Marion added an RBI single to push the lead to 4-2.

Coastal Carolina closed their deficit to 4-3 with a run in the fifth. David Sappelt reached first on a dropped pop up to open the frame and moved to second on single by Duggan. Raber moved both runners up a base with a sacrifice bunt and Matt Radmacher scored the runner on a sacrifice fly to left.

That would be all the scoring for the night as both offenses struggled to mount any further threats. Coastal had just three baserunners over the final four innings, and HPU's best chance to add an insurance run ended with a rundown at plate in the eighth.

"I thought it was a tremendous team effort," added Bando. "I couldn't give the game ball to any one guy. I think this is the best we've pitched all year. Our hitters did a really do job of taking what DeLaGarza was giving us. I'm just proud of this team. They beat a very good team tonight."

Alvino and Rosario led the way for High Point at the plate tallying three hits each. Manion and Alfie Wheeler both added a pair of hits in the victory. Five different CCU batters recorded single hits in the contest.

The Panthers and Chanticleers continue their weekend series at Williard Stadium at Noon on Saturday.