For the second consecutive game the High Point baseball team saw a ninth-inning rally come up just short dropping a 9-7 decision to UNC Asheville on Thursday at the Big South Conference Tournament at The Winthrop Ballpark.

HPU, the No. 5 tournament seed, finishes the year with a 27-30 record while No. 6-seed Asheville (22-37) staves off elimination extending their season for at least one more day. The Bulldogs will meet the loser of Thursday's nightcap between No. 2 Winthrop and No. 3 Liberty at 11 a.m. on Friday in another elimination contest.

"Our guys showed a lot of fight," said HPU head coach Sal Bando, Jr. "We played poorly early on and didn't do a whole lot well.  That made it tough to comeback but like always we showed some fight.  We were close, just not close enough.  We had a good group this year and I'm gonna miss the guys leaving."

Asheville jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning.  The Bulldogs chased High Point starter Tony Flores with two runs early when David Williams and Elliott Arrington hit back-to-back singles to start the rally for Asheville. After Kyle Smith struck out, Steve Burnich singled to center to load the bases.  John Whited knocked home Williams for the game's first run, and Flores walked Matt Henson to force in the second score.  Chad Jennings replaced Flores and abruptly allowed a run-scoring single to Kevin Mattison that scored Burnich, while Whited came around to score after a fielding error in the outfield.
 
The Bulldogs went up 5-0 the next inning when Williams scored on a bases loaded walk to Henson.

The Panthers stormed back in the bottom of the third inning with a four-run rally of its own cutting Asheville's lead to 5-4.  Eric Marion doubled to start the inning and moved to third on Alfie Wheeler's single.  Robby Kuzdale reached on an error to load the bases, and Jeff Cowan scored Marion with his single to right.  Wheeler scored on a walk to Billy Manion, then Kuzdale came around to score on an unassisted groundout to third.  Manion eventually scored on a double by J. Williams.
 
UNC Asheville tacked on another four runs in the fifth to move back up by five, 9-4.  Arrington led off the inning with a double and later scored on Whited's two-out single to right-center field.  Asheville then loaded the bases and Justin Schumer knocked in Whited and Henson with a single to center field.  Rob Vernon added an infield hit to bring Mattison home for the fourth run of the frame.
 
Both teams went scoreless for two innings until High Point posted a two-out run in the bottom of the eighth inning.  Chris Norwood singled up the middle and moved to second when Matt Schlanger was hit-by-pitch.  With runners on first and second, Marion's double to left scored Norwood to make it 9-5.
 
The Panthers rallied again in the bottom of the ninth.  After Kuzdale singled to start the inning, Asheville replaced starter Chris Nigro with closer Ben Buchanan.  Cowan walked and Manion singled to right to score Kuzdale.  Buchanan struck out Randy Schwartz for the first out, but gave up a walk to Williams to load the bases.  Pinch-hitter Matt Gantner also drew a walk that brought home Cowan pulling High Point within two runs at 9-7.  Buchanan was able to strike out pinch-hitter Tucker Stobbe and got Marion to ground out to first to end the game.
 
Nigro (3-4) earned the win for Asheville.  He went eight innings, allowed 12 hits, six runs (five earned), three walks and three strikeouts.  Flores took the loss for High Point and fell to 4-3.  Tom Boleska struck out nine batters in five innings of long relief work for the Panthers.
 
For High Point, Wheeler went 3-for-4 at the plate and was joined in the multi-hit category by Cowan, Norwood and Marion who each added two hits. Williams went 3-5 for Asheville with two runs scored, while Mattison, Arrington and Whited each had two hits.

High Point completes another solid season that saw the Panthers match their Division I record mark of 27 wins along with posting a second straight double-digit conference win total.