High Point (13-17, 7-8) split a Big South Conference double-header Saturday afternoon at Coy O. Williard Sr. Stadium with Charleston Southern (13-17, 8-8).  HPU dropped game one 21-4 before rebounding to take game two 14-7.

Game one started out with the Panthers taking a 2-0 lead after an inning before CSU scored the next 11 runs of the contest.  Jeff Cowan drew a leadoff walk for HPU followed by an Alfie Wheeler double to right-centerfield which plated Cowan.  Bill Manion reached on a fielder's choice trying to bunt Wheeler to third, but Jake Cox got Wheeler at third.  Billy Alvino drilled a pitch off the centerfield walk for a double, advancing Manion to third.  A walk to Kyle Mahoney brought up Max Fulginiti with the bases loaded.   The left-hander beat the double-play attempt allowing Manion to come across for the second run of the inning.

An error led to the first run for the visitors before they erupted for six runs in the third inning and tacked on four more in the fifth and sixth innings.  The big blow came from Tyler Thornburg who hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in his second at-bat over the leftfield wall.  RBI singles from Scotty Radabaugh and Brantley Meier accounted for the other two runs in the third.  Kory Morian hit a solo homerun for the Buccaneers in the fifth inning.

Thornburg singled through the left side driving in his fifth run of the ballgame.  Morian brought in the second run in inning on another single before a walk to Cox plated the final run of the inning, giving CSU a 11-2 lead.

Fulginiti walked to begin the bottom of the sixth before the next two batters were retired.  Spencer Andrews singled and Cowan reached on an error, loading the bases.  Each runner moved upon a wild pitch, scoring Fulginiti.  A bizarre play ensued with Wheeler hitting a grounder to the shortstop who flipped the ball to second base, although there was no force out on the play.  Radabaugh tried to get Wheeler out at first but was unable to.  Andrews scored on the play before a groundout ended the inning.

Charleston Southern scored the final 10 runs of the contest, three in the seventh, six in the eighth and one in the ninth.  Anthony Markham picked up the win working six innings allowing four runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks.  Keith Hustedt picked up the save tossing three scoreless innings, striking out two and giving up two hits.  Thornburg carried the offense picking up eight RBI while three other players drove in a pair of runs.

Game two saw High Point jump out to an early lead again, but this time continued to extend their lead in the following innings to seize control of the game after just three frames.  Cowan got on base to start the contest, this time getting hit in the head with a breaking ball.  Wheeler reached on a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt, where starter Jesse Cadenhead tried to get Cowan at second, but Cowan beat the throw as the ball squirted away into the outfield allowing him to get to third.  Manion singled in Cowan and put runners at first and second.  After a wild pitch, Alvino singled in Wheeler, putting runners at the corners.  Mahoney doubled off the centerfield wall plating both Manion and Alvino.  Fulginiti laid down a perfect bunt, extending his hitting streak to 20-games.  Andrews singled down the rightfield line plating Mahoney.  After a fly out, Pablo Rosario yanked a ball down the rightfield line plating both Fulginiti and Andrews.  Rosario stole third before another fly out accounted for the second out.  Wheeler singled in Rosario for the final run of the inning, giving HPU a 8-0 lead.

Alvino started the second inning with a hit to right-centerfield.  A groundout in between two wild pitches put the catcher at third base.  Andrews singled deep in the shortstop hole plating Alvino.  Rosario began the third inning with a mammoth blast over the scoreboard in right-centerfield.  Cowan followed that up with a double down the rightfield line and a single by Wheeler up the box plated Cowan, giving the Panthers a 11-0 lead after three innings.

The two sides traded the next four runs, CSU scoring two in the fourth, while High Point got a run in the fifth and sixth inning.  Thornburg smacked a two-run homerun, his second of the day on a 2-0 pitch from Jamie Serber, cutting the visitor deficit to 11-2.

High Point responded in the fifth with Rosario picking up his third extra-base hit of the game, this time a triple off the top of the centerfield wall.  Cowan brought in Rosario with a single up the middle.  Alvino poked a single into rightfield, and advanced to third after a ball thrown by the first baseman trying to force him out at second hit off his helmet and caromed into the outfield.  He would later score on a wild pitch.

The Buccaneers tried to make things interesting, posting four runs in the seventh.  Morian began the inning with a single up the middle.  Cox homered to leftfield.  Patrick Dolan and Michael Obuchowski drove in the final two runs of the inning, making it a 13-6 HPU advantage.

Sal Pezzino's pinch-hit single up the middle capped off the scoring for the Panthers.  Rosario followed up the single with one of his own, giving the junior the cycle.  Serber picked up the win working 6.2 innings and upping his mark to 3-2 on the season.  Rosario's four hits paced the offense, while Alvino, Cowan and Wheeler all had three hits on the contest.  It was Alvino's fourth straight game with three hits.  For the week, the backstop is 12-for-16, scoring four runs, driving in five runs and his first homerun of the season.  He drew two walks and was hit by a pitch, giving him a .790 on-base percentage and has an 1.728 OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage).  Cowan picked up four hits on the afternoon, bringing the second baseman to within 15 hits of breaking the school's all-time hits record.

High Point will be back in action Tuesday April 14th when it travels to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina in a non-conference match-up at Boshamer Stadium.  First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.

**You can access the game one box score by clicking the box score link and the game two box score by clicking the game notes link above**