LIVE STATS
LIVE VIDEO
GAME NOTES (PDF)

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team opens the Big South Baseball Championship presented by Hardees against No. 7 seed Liberty on Tuesday, May 24, at 9:30 a.m., in Lexington, S.C. The Panthers and Flames will meet in the opening round for the second-straight year.
 
High Point Earns Best-Ever Seed in Big South Championship: The No. 2 seed earned by High Point is the team's highest seed in the Big South Championship since joining the conference in 2000. The team's previous high was a No. 3 seed in 2013. HPU went 0-2 that season, losing to Gardner-Webb in the first round before being eliminated by Longwood.
 
No. 7 Liberty: Liberty finished the 2016 regular season with a 28-27 overall record and a 12-12 mark in the Big South. The Flames tied for fifth in the league along with Winthrop and Presbyterian College but were dropped to the seventh seed in the tiebreaker. Liberty is one of the top offenses in the Big South this season, hitting .288 as a team, which is third in the league behind Coastal Carolina and Gardner-Webb. LU's 37 home runs is second in the conference with only Coastal Carolina hitting more. Big South Freshman of the Year D.J. Artis leads the Flames with a .379 batting average, 51 runs scored and 22 stolen bases. He is third in the conference in batting average and fifth in runs scored. Fellow first-team All-Big South selection Andrew Yacyk is hitting .316 with a team-high seven home runs and 48 RBI. High Point dropped two of three games to Liberty this season at Williard Stadium in the final series of the regular season. The Panthers won the first by a score of 11-8 before losing the next two, 11-10 and 16-3. HPU is 20-37 against Liberty in the Div. I era (2000-present).
 
HPU vs. Liberty in the Big South Tournament: High Point is 4-5 against Liberty in nine Big South Tournament meetings. The two teams played in the first round of the 2015 Big South Tournament where High Point picked up an 8-3 win. Andre Scrubb threw a complete game against the Flames, allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks while striking out 10. This is the third-straight year that HPU and Liberty have faced off in the Big South Championship and the second-straight year that the two teams will meet in the opening round.
 
Last Weekend: High Point finished the 2016 regular season by dropping two of three games to Liberty at home. The Panthers won the first game of a Thursday doubleheader by a score of 11-8 after scoring five unanswered runs late to come from behind. HPU then dropped the nightcap, 11-10, and the regular-season finale, 16-3. Sophomore Hunter Lee had a strong series, hitting .400 with two home runs, seven RBI and five runs scored. The HPU second baseman hit a home run in each of the two games on Thursday after having hit two home runs all season up to that point.
 
Three Panthers Named All-Conference: Chris Clare was named first-team All-Big South and both Dominic Fazio and freshman Andrew Gottfried were named second-team All-Big South by the conference on Monday. Clare hit a team-best .363 with 77 hits and 38 runs scored in his junior season and led all Big South players with 39 hits in conference play. Fazio hit .317 with a team-high 39 RBI, 16 doubles and 35 walks. He ranked among the top-10 in the conference in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base percentage in conference games. Gottfried finished 6-4 on the mound in his first season with a 2.66 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 64-1/3 innings. He ranks fifth in the conference in ERA and ninth in opponent batting average.
 
HPU Matches Regular Season Win Mark:
High Point finished the regular season with a 31-22 overall record, matching its Div. I single-season record for regular season wins. The Panthers set the record in 2014 when they went 31-20 in the regular season and finished with a program Div. I record 33 wins.
 
Mansfield Closing Strong: Redshirt-junior Tim Mansfield is ending the 2016 season on a hot streak, hitting .448 (13-29) with five RBI, eight runs scored and 10 walks in nine games in May. Mansfield has reached base in every game he has played in May and has multiple hits in three games, including the series finale at Campbell where he matched his career high with four hits to go along with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored.
 
The Hitman Cometh: Dominic Fazio set a new career-high with two home runs in the 7-0 win over Radford on May 8, making him the only High Point player with multiple home runs in a game this season. Fazio has become a staple in the High Point lineup, starting all 53 games for the Panthers this season. After serving as a bench player for his first three years at HPU, Fazio is hitting .317 with a team-high 16 doubles, 35 walks and 39 RBI. He has recorded multiple hits in 17 games and reached base safely in all but seven games. Fazio's 58 hits in 2016 is 27 more than he had in his first three years combined.


Cozart Wins 200th Game: The Panthers' win over Wright State on March 2 was the 200th win of head coach Craig Cozart's career.  He is now 226-223 in his eight-year career as a head coach with all eight years taking place at HPU. Cozart holds the HPU Div. I record for career wins and has guided High Point to its six winningest seasons in the Div. I era. The Panthers had never finished at or above .500 prior to Cozart's arrival, but since he took over in 2009, the team has finished .500 or better five times, including each of the past four seasons.
 
Clare Leading The Way: Junior Chris Clare has emerged as the Panthers' top offensive performer this season. The shortstop leads the teams with a .363 batting average, 77 hits and 38 runs scored. He also has 15 doubles, 25 RBI and 11 stolen bases in 15 attempts. Clare has 16 more hits than sophomore Carson Jackson, who is second on the team with 61 hits. He has recorded at least one hit in all but seven games this season and has been held hitless just twice in Big South play.
 
Zente Running Wild: Austen Zente leads the Big South with 25 steals in his sophomore campaign, the most in a season by a Panther hitter since Nate Roberts stole 36 bags in 2010. He is tied for 29th nationally in stolen bases. As a team, High Point is third in the Big South with 82 steals. Four different HPU players have double-digit steals with Hunter Lee having stolen 12, Chris Clare 11 and Tim Mansfield 10.  


Scrubb Among Nation's K/9 Leaders: Andre Scrubb is first in the Big South and 10th in the nation with 11.97 strikeouts per nine innings. He has struck out 90 in 67-2/3 innings. The junior right-hander has more strikeouts than innings pitched in nine of his last 10 starts, including three double-digit strikeouts games, and is holding opponents to a .231 batting average on the season.
 
Gottfried Named Big South Pitcher of the Week: Andrew Gottfried was named the conferences' Pitcher of the Week after earning his sixth win of the season with seven innings of one-run ball against Campbell on Sunday. The freshman right-hander allowed just five hits and no walks while striking out five. He leads High Point and is fifth in the Big South with a 2.66 ERA and is 10th in the conference with a .239 opponent batting average.


Clare Named Big South Player of the Week: Junior Chris Clare was a key contributor to High Point's seventh-straight series win, as the junior finished 9-for-11 (.818) at the plate in four games with three runs scored and a pair of RBI. The infielder headlined his week with two 3-for-3 performances, including a perfect mark against No. 11 North Carolina on Tuesday. In the series win over Longwood, he finished 6-for-8 (.750) with three runs scored, two walks and a stolen base.

Weekend Rotation K Party: All three members of the Panthers' weekend rotation set or matched their career highs in strikeouts against Longwood. Scot Hoffman matched his career high with eight strikeouts on Friday, Andre Scrubb tied his career high with 11 strikeouts on Saturday and Andrew Gottfried set a new career high with seven strikeouts on Sunday.
 
HPU Pitching Enjoys Bounce Back March: After struggling on the mound to start the season, High Point turned it around in March, posting a 3.14 team ERA and holding opponents to a .226 batting average. The Panthers had three shutouts in the month against Dayton, La Salle and UNC Asheville and held opponents to two or fewer runs in 10 games.
 
Scrubb's March Madness: Andre Scrubb was dominant on the mound in March, going 4-0 with a 1.63 ERA in 27-2/3 innings. The right-hander held opponents to a .149 batting average while striking out 38 batters. He recorded two double-digit strikeout games, including a career-high 11 at UNC Asheville.

Jackson Named Big South Player Of The Week: Sophomore Carson Jackson earned his first Big South Player of the Week nod on March 21 after helping High Point grab a road sweep at UNC Asheville in its first conference series of the season. Jackson went 8-18 at the plate with a double, two triples and a home run as High Point went 3-1, including a three-game sweep on the road at UNC Asheville to open Big South play. He led the Panthers with six RBI and four runs scored and stole his sixth base of the season. He was the first HPU player to earn Big South Player of the Week honors since Dane McDermott on April 7, 2014.
 
HPU Receives Free Passes Against UNCG: The Panthers were walked 13 times in the series finale against UNCG, matching the HPU Div. I single-game record set against Charleston Southern in 2007. The team also had three batters hit in the game. In the sixth inning, High Point scored six runs on just two hits as four players were walked and another two batters were hit.
 
Lee Ties HPU Doubles Record: Sophomore Hunter Lee began the 2016 season with three doubles on opening day against UNCG. The sophomore hit doubles to right in the first, third and sixth innings while also drawing a walk in the fourth. Lee's three doubles tied a HPU Div. I single-game record that has been achieved five other times, last by former Panther first baseman Spencer Angelis in 2012.
 
#GoHPU