Box Score (PDF)

• High Point fell on the road to Liberty by a score of 11-1 on Friday.
• The Panthers drop back to .500 overall at 8-8 and are 0-1 in the Big South.
• Junior Austen Zente had two of HPU's five hits and scored the lone Panther run of the game.

LYNCHBURG, Va. – The High Point University baseball team dropped the first game of its weekend series at Liberty by a score of 11-1 on Friday afternoon in Lynchburg, Va. Junior Austen Zente had two hits and a run scored for the Panthers.

"I have to give a lot of credit to Caleb Evans," head coach Criag Cozart said. "He ran right through us today. Liberty was really scrappy at the plate. Shepherd and Artis got the home runs and that was the game. This was game one of three so we can still win this series but we need to come out and be a lot better in a lot of different areas."

Sophomore Andrew Gottfried dropped to 1-1 on the season after giving up seven earned runs on seven hits and two walks with five strikeouts in 5-1/3 innings of work.

Caleb Evans went the distance for Liberty, allowing just one earned run on five hits and a walk while striking out 10 to earn his third win of the season for LU.

High Point drops to 8-8 on the season and start Big South play at 0-1 with the loss while Liberty improves to 10-6 overall and 1-1 in the conference.

After three scoreless innings, Liberty got on the board with four runs in the fourth. The Flames then added six runs in the sixth and another run in the seventh to extend the lead to 11-0.

High Point scored its lone run of the day in the ninth to bring the final score to 11-1. Zente and senior Josh Greene led off with back-to-back singles then junior Zack Gray drove in the HPU leadoff hitter with an RBI single.

High Point and Liberty continue their weekend series on Saturday at 5 p.m., when the two teams converge at Liberty Baseball Stadium for the second of three games.

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