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Drew Geissinger went 3-3 at the plate and Corey Swickle pitched three scoreless innings of relief to help the High Point University baseball team to an 8-4 win over North Carolina A&T Saturday at Williard Stadium. The Panthers won the first two games in the series and will go for the sweep Sunday at 1 p.m.

“Sometimes you have to win an ugly game,” said head coach Craig Cozart. “Today we did just that. It was not our best baseball but we got the win and are 2-0 this weekend. We have a lot to clean up on the mound and defensively if we want the sweep tomorrow. Corey Swickle and Kyle Wigmore came out of the bullpen and slammed the door for us. They didn't allow N.C. A&T an opportunity to get back in the game.”

Jared Avidon earned his first win of the season, allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits in five innings. He walked four and struck out two. Swickle pitched three scoreless innings of relief, striking out six and allowing just one hit. Wigmore gave the Panthers a perfect ninth inning.

Aggies' starter Nick Oelker gave up eight runs on 12 hits in five innings of work but only one of his runs was earned. He falls to 2-2 with the loss.

The Panthers scored six in the first, all unearned, due to two A&T errors. With one out and a runner on first Ryan Retz and Steve Antolik reached on back-to-back errors to keep the inning alive. Kyle Mahoney, Mike Gragilla, Zach Tessier and Mike Mercurio all had RBI singles in the inning.

The Aggies pushed across their own unearned run in the first adding two more in the second to make it a 6-3 game until the fourth. North Carolina A&T got a sacrifice fly from Xavier Macklin in the fourth to cut High Point's lead to two at 6-4.

High Point responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth. Kyle Mahoney doubled and scored in the inning and Gragilla walked and came around to make it an 8-4 game.

Swickle entered the game in the sixth inning and got six strikeouts in three innings of work, giving up just one hit to North Carolina A&T. The six strikeouts tie his career high set last season against Eastern Kentucky.

"It felt great to get back out on the mound and contribute to the team," Swickle said. "I was able to attack the hitters, execute my pitches and keep the momentum on our side. It meant a lot to help the team get a win today."

Geissinger reached base in all five plate appearances, going 3-3 with a walk and a hit by pitch. Mahoney finished the day 3-5 with two runs scored and Mercurio was 203 with two RBI.

The Panthers improve to 9-7 with the win while North Carolina A&T falls to 6-10.