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The High Point University baseball team picked up the series win over Gardner-Webb with a 16-10 victory Sunday in the final game of the series. Sophomore
Kyle Starnes pitched four innings of relief for the win and junior
Nate Roberts went 2-5 with a pair of home runs.
“Today was a tremendous character win,” said head coach
Craig Cozart. “To go down 5-0 through the first three innings and then respond offensively was outstanding. Two things happened tonight, we had great relief pitching from
Kyle Starnes and
Corey Swickle and
Nate Roberts set the tone for us offensively, and everyone else followed suit. This was a tough series win for us, but a must and I am very happy with our performance.”
Freshman
Jared Avidon got the start for High Point, giving up four runs in the first inning and giving up two hits to lead off the second before he was relieved by Starnes. Starnes allowed one of Avidon's runners to score before getting out of the inning without further damage. Starnes posted scoreless third and fourth innings before giving up a run in the fifth.
Gardner-Webb starter
Conner Scarborough held HPU hitless through three innings before
Mike Mercurio hit a double off the center field wall in the fourth. With Mercurio on second Roberts hit s home run to right field to cut GWU's lead to 5-2.
Scarborough gave up a single to
Kyle Mahoney and a double to
Drew Geissinger to lead off the fifth inning before the Runnin' Bulldogs went to the bullpen. With Jeff Howell on the mound
Murray White IV reach on an error to score Geissinger. Mercurio walked and Roberts was hit by a pitch to load the bases for
Matt Gantner who hit a fly ball deep to left field to score White. Steve Anotlik would double in a pair of runs and Mahoney doubled in a run for his second hit of the inning to give High Point a 8-6 lead. Howell was tagged with the loss, pitching just 2/3 of an inning, allowing four runs. He falls to 2-3 on the season.
Starnes loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning before he was replaced by
Corey Swickle. Swickle recorded two quick outs before GWU pushed across with a walk to Ty Boyles. A ground ball to shortstop ended the Bulldogs threat.
Starnes pitched four innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with three strikeouts to improve to 3-1 on the season.
“I just wanted to keep them from scoring and give our offense a chance to get us back in the game,” Starnes said. “I was really glad to get the win for our seniors today.”
Swickle pitched three innings in relief, allowing one unearned run in the eighth inning.
HPU kept adding to the score, putting up three runs in the sixth on Roberts' second home run of the afternoon. The Panthers added three more in the seventh when White came to the plate with the bases loaded and cleared them with a double to left field. Geissinger picked up an RBI in the eighth inning and Mahoney scored on a wild pitch to secure the 16-10 win.
“Our bullpen really kept us in the game today,” Roberts said. “They came in and got the job done and it allowed our bats to finally get going. They left two pitches down the middle and I was able to hit them out.”
Drew Dades came out of the bullpen for the ninth inning but gave up two runs with only one out before
Mikel Rodenberg came in to close the game.
Roberts went 2-1 with three runs scored and five RBI and Geissinger went 3-5 with two runs scored and two RBI.
High Point (24-24, 10-11 Big South Conference) will play its final home game of the season on Wednesday when Western Carolina comes to Williard Stadium for a 6 p.m. game.
