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Freshman Zach Haile pitched five scoreless innings to lead the High Point University baseball team to a 11-3 win over Atlantic Coast Conference opponent Wake Forest Wednesday at Williard Stadium. The HPU offense put up 11 runs on 14 hits off 10 different Wake Forest pitchers. Alex Wiesner got the start and the loss for the Demon Deacons and no pitcher went more than one inning.

“This was a really nice performance on the offensive end,” said head coach Craig Cozart. “We knew we would see at least nine different pitchers for Wake Forest so the challenge was that we wouldn't get to see them a second time through the order. We set the tone early on the offensive side and pieced it together on the mound. Haile did a nice job with the start and now we get ready for the weekend.”

Haile gave up just four hits and picked up four strikeouts to improve to 2-0 on the season and the bring HPU's record to 14-7 (1-2 Big South Conference) on the season.

“Tonight was a good win,” Haile said. “It feels good to come back and get one after last night. MY defense and offense really helped me out tonight and hopefully we can transition it in to this weekend at Winthrop.”

Junior Kyle Mahoney got HPU on the board in the first inning with a two-run home run to center field, his third of the season. The homer scored Nate Roberts who had earned a two-out walk.

After posting one run in the second inning off Justin Van Grouw, HPU put up a five-spot in the third with Wake's Eli Robbins on the mound. Roberts led off with a walk and Mahoney singled to put runners on first and second. Matt Gantner's sacrifice bunt moved the runners over and Roberts scored on a sacrifice fly by Max Fulginiti. Steve Antolik extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single through the right side and Mike Mercurio came around to score on Pablo Rosario's fourth double of the season. Rosario's double signalled a call to the Wake Forest bullpen. Ryan Bouton came out, giving up a single to Andrew Bartlett, scoring Rosario before he recorded the third out of the inning.

Brandon Johnson took the mound for the Deacs in the fourth inning and gave up three runs. Fulginiti and White each had RBI hits and Mercurio picked up an RBI with a sacrifice fly.

Haile got in to trouble by loading the bases with one out in the fourth inning but was able to get two fly ball outs to preserve the scoreless game.

Kyle Starnes came out of the High Point bullpen in the sixth inning. With one out he walked two batters before getting Austin Stadler to ground in to a 3-6-1 double play to end the inning without any runs scoring.

Wake Forest got on the board, pushing across two runs on two runs on two hits and an error. Both runs were credited to freshman Steven Schils who did not record an out before he was taken out of the game and sophomore Al Yevoli was brought in. Yevoli got two outs and with the bases loaded Wes Torrez entered the game and got the first batter he faced to strike out looking to end the inning.
The Demon Deacons added a run in the eighth inning, unearned off Torrez to make it an 11-3 game. Stadler reached on an error and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Mac Williamson.

Mahoney finished the night 2-4 with two RBI and two runs scored and extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a 3-3 night and two RBI.

HPU and Wake Forest will play again on April 7 at Wake Forest at 6 p.m. This weekend the Panthers head to Winthrop for a Big South weekend series.