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The High Point University baseball team handed Charleston Southern a 15-7 loss Thursday in the opening game of the Big South series. Steve Antolik hit his fifth home run of the season in the win against his former team.

Murray White IV went 5-5 with three runs scored and Jamie Serber improved to 6-2 on the season. Kyle Starnes picked up his first career save, allowing one run in three innings of relief.

“We took control of this game offensively from the fifth inning on,” said head coach Craig Cozart. “Serber and Starnes minimized Charleston Southern's offense and kept them from putting together a big inning. It was exciting to see the offensive flow come back today. We need to keep it up in the final two games of this series and in to the conference tournament. This was a great start to the series.”

Serber allowed six runs in six innings with five strikeouts to pick up his sixth win of the season. It is the most wins Serber has had in a season in his career.

HPU took the lead with a four-run fifth inning, scoring all four runs with two outs. Pablo Rosario was hit by his 23rd pitch of the season and stole second. After Mike Mercurio grounded out for the second out of the inning, moving Rosario to third, Nate Roberts worked a walk and also stole second base. Matt Gantner doubled to left center to tie the game at 4-4. Antolik came up and hit his fifth home run of the season, giving HPU a 6-4 lead. Antolik played for Charleston Southern as a freshman and this was the first time he has faced his former team.

“I approached it like any other game,” Antolik said. “It was nice to come out and be successful against my former team but I am just really glad we got the win.”

Nick Chinners led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to pull CSU within one, 6-5, but Serber got out of the inning with three straight outs after the solo shot.

The Panthers took a 9-5 lead in the sixth inning. White, Drew Geissinger and Rosario had three straight singles and all came around to score, knocking Jesse Cadenhead out of the game. Roberts and Gantner both picked up RBI in the inning.

Cadenhead was tagged with the loss, falling to 5-5 on the season. He allowed nine runs, all earned, with six walks and two strikeouts in five innings of work.

With three more runs in the seventh inning HPU extended its lead to 12-6 and brought out the third CSU pitcher of the game. White singled to right field for the fourth time in the game and came around to score on pinch-hitter Andrew Bartlett's single through the left side. Bartlett and Geissinger both scored on Roberts' two-out single through the right side.

Kyle Starnes came out of the bullpen for the seventh inning, allowing one run on three hits and a sacrifice fly but struck out Harrison Wilkins to end the inning with HPU up 12-7.

White capped off his 5-5 day with a single through the right side in the ninth inning. He scored three runs in the game. Roberts was 2-3 with three RBI and three walks to go with three stolen bases.

High Point moves to 27-27 (13-12 Big South Conference) with the win while CSU falls to 17-36 (6-18 BSC). The teams will play at 2 p.m. on Friday.