The High Point baseball team grabbed an early lead and pounded out 12 hits en route to a 9-3 win over Radford University in the opening round of the Big South Conference Tournament on Tuesday night at The Winthrop Ballpark.

With the win, HPU advances to the double-elimination portion of the tournament bracket and improves to 27-28 on the year while ending the Highlanders season at 10-36. The 27 wins matches the Panthers Division I program record set last year. High Point earned its third consecutive opening game victory at the Big South Tournament.

Junior outfielder Bill Manion led the HPU offense tallying a season-best five RBIs including a homerun. Fellow junior Eammon Portice picked up the victory on the mound after allowing just one run while striking out seven in seven innings of work.

"Portice did a great job and gave us a chance," said HPU head coach Sal Bando, Jr. "Bill Manion picked a great time to hit his first homerun. I thought it was a well played game by our guys. They handled pressure situations well. It was a good 'W' and we plan on being here for awhile."

High Point got on the board in the bottom of the opening inning plating a run on two hits. Robby Kuzdale led off with a double to right and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jeff Cowan. Manion followed with an RBI double that bounded over the third baseman's head. After Randy Schwartz was intentionally walked, Manion was doubled up at second on a dying liner to right off the bat of Chris Norwood.

The Panthers extended their lead to 4-0 in the third as Manion ripped a three-run homer, his first of the season, down the leftfield line. Kuzdale drew a one-out walk and Cowan singled in front of the Manion blast.

In the fourth, Portice struck out Steven Ellis marking the 400th of the season for the Panthers, marking just the second time in program history that HPU has eclipsed 400 strikeouts in a season. The High Point staff finished with eight strikeouts in the game giving them 404 for the year, just five shy of the all-time mark of 409 set in 1972. Portice's seven strikeouts brings his career total to 322, which ranks second all-time at HPU and fifth in Big South history.

Radford scored their first run in the fifth inning taking advantage of a leadoff walk by Nate Toth to make the score 4-1. After getting aboard, Toth moved to second on a groundout and was singled to third by Rick Hoogstraten before scoring on an RBI groundout from Rocky Weiss.

In the sixth inning, HPU answered with a pair of runs to take a 6-1 advantage. Eric Marion started things off with a single and moved up a base on a single by Kuzdale. Cowan followed with an RBI single scoring Marion and pushing Kuzdale to third. Manion lifted a ball to deep center allowing Kuzdale to score on a sacrifice fly.

High Point extended its lead to 9-1 with three runs in the seventh. Norwood drew a one-out walk then Matt Schlanger reached on a hit by pitch. After a lineout, Marion walked to load the bases and Alfie Wheeler followed with a two-out two RBI single. Kuzdale was then plunked by a pitch and Cowan added an RBI single.

The Highlanders closed the scoring with a pair of runs in the eighth off of High Point reliever Glenn Jones. Weiss earned a leadoff walk and moved to second on a pinch hit single by Raphael Turner. Steve Mignogna flew out to left moving a runner to third. Jones then unleashed a wild pitch that allowed RU's second run to scurry home. Big South batting leader Alex Gregory followed with an RBI single to extend his hit streak to 16 games.

RJ Chlebnikow allowed just one hit in pitching the final 1.1 innings of the game for HPU.

In addition to Manion's strong offensive night, Kuzdale went 2-for-3 at the plate and scored three times while Cowan finished with a 3-for-4 performance including a pair of RBI.

High Point will meet tournament host and No. 2 seeded Winthrop on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Junior Bubba O'Donnell (3-6) takes the hill for the Panthers against Eagles ace Alex Wilson (5-4).