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Freshman Scott Glover had a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth to lift HPU over Fairleigh Dickinson, 7-6, Friday at Williard Stadium. Glover took a 3-1 pitch from FDU's Spencer Kelly deep enough to right field to score Nate Roberts from third base for his first career RBI. Kelly got the loss for the Knights while junior Corey Swickle improved to 2-0 on the season for HPU.

“You have to give a lot of credit to Fairleigh Dickinson,” said head coach Craig Cozart. “They came down here ready to play and took advantage of every opportunity to score runs. Fortunately, we had the last at bat. We have a lot to clean up. We showed good fight and it was good to get the win but we have work to do.”

High Point staked starting pitcher Jamie Serber to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Murray White IV extended his hitting streak to a career-high four games with a single in the first inning. After stealing second, he advanced to third base when Roberts reached on an error by the second baseman. With runners on the corners Kyle Mahoney lined out to the right fielder, allowing White to score. Roberts stole his third base of the season and scored on a double to left center by senior Matt Gantner.

The Panthers tacked on one run each in the second and third innings. White had an RBI double in the second and Max Fulginiti has an RBI double in the third.

With a 4-0 lead Serber made quick work of the Knights through the fifth inning, allowing just three hits and striking out a career-high seven batters. In the sixth inning the first three FDU batters singled off Serber, scoring one run before Kyle Starnes was called in from the bullpen. Starnes' fourth pitch of the game was a double off the bat Ryan Kresky, scoring two more runs credited to Serber. Starnes got the next three batters out to end the rally with HPU still up 4-3.

The Knights weren't done, however, knotting the game at 4-4 with a run in the top half of the seventh inning off of Starnes. With two outs, Cozart again went to the bullpen calling on freshman Jaime Schultz for his second appearance of the season. The rookie ended the inning with two strikeouts.
In HPU's half of the seventh Mahoney led off the inning with a walk and made it to third on a double by Gantner. Terry Lydecker came on to pitch for Fairleigh Dickinson and Fulginiti singled up the middle, scoring Mahoney and Gantner for his team-high fourth and fifth RBI of the season, putting the Panthers back on top 6-4.

Schultz kept rolling in the eighth, striking out the first batter, Kresky, and after walking the second batter of the inning got the final two batters to pop up. Schultz finished the night with three strikeouts and a walk in 1-2/3 hitless innings.

With Swickle in to pitch the ninth inning the Knights kept battling, putting up two runs on three hits for the second tied score of the ballgame.

With the game tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth, Roberts singled up the middle on the 1-2 pitch for his first hit in a Panther uniform. Roberts took off running on the 3-2 pitch to Mahoney and Mahoney slapped the ball through the right side with Roberts ending up at third base. Glover came off the bench to pinch hit for Drew Geissinger and flew out to right field for his first collegiate RBI.

“I actually felt pretty relaxed up there,” Glover said. “I've done it hundreds of time in practice, so I just let it come to me.”

Mahoney finished the game 2-4 with a walk and two runs scored and Fulginiti went 2-3 with three RBI. White was 2-5 with an RBI and a run scored, as he leads the team with six hits on the season.

High Point improves to 2-2 on the season while the Knights fall to 0-1. The two teams will meet up Saturday at 2 p.m. at Williard Stadium. Sophomore Al Yevoli will make his second start for the Panthers while sophomore Ray Courtney will take the mound for FDU.