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Friday Starters
CU: TBA
HPU: So., RH Andrew Gottfried

Saturday Starters
CU: R-So., RH Alex Yarem
HPU: Fr., RH Drew Daczkowski

Sunday Starters
CU: Fr., RH Ryan Kirk
HPU: Fr., RH Trevor Holloway

HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team is home this weekend with a three-game Big South conference series against Campbell starting on Friday, April 7. The Panthers enter the weekend having won four of their past five games.

History vs. Campbell: High Point is 11-19 against Campbell in the Div. I era and 6-8 against the Camels since Campbell rejoined the Big South in 2013. The Panthers dropped two of three games against Campbell on the road in Buies Creek last season, losing the first two games by identical scorelines of 4-3 before closing out the weekend with an 11-1 win. High Point took two of three games from the Camels at home in 2015 and have not lost a home series to Campbell since 2013.
 
The Opponent: Campbell currently sits in a tie for second in the Big South with a 4-2 conference mark to go along with a 15-14 overall record. The Camels enter the weekend having won three straight, two against Charleston Southern and one during the midweek against UNC Wilmington. Campbell leads the Big South with a .279 team batting average and has scored a league-high 181 runs. Redshirt-freshman outfielder Matthew Barefoot leads the Campbell offense in his first year on the field and has been named Big South Freshman of the Week twice. Barefoot is hitting a team-high .373, which ranks third in the Big South. He is tied for second in the conference with seven home runs and is fifth in the league with a team-high 31 RBI. Senior outfielder Drew Butler leads the league with 23 stolen bases and 27 runs scored. Right-handers Alex Yarem and Ryan Kirk will take the mound for the Camels on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Yarem is 2-0 with a 3.54 ERA in eight appearances and three starts. He has 23 strikeouts in 40-2/3 innings of work. Kirk is 3-2 with a 4.29 ERA in eight appearances and six starts. He has 27 strikeouts in 35-2/3 innings.

Probable Starting Pitchers:
• Friday: Sophomore right-hander Andrew Gottfried will make his seventh start of the season for the Panthers on Friday. Gottfried matched his career high of 7-2/3 innings pitched and set a new career high with eight strikeouts in a win over Gardner-Webb last week. He is 1-2 this season with a 3.90 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 32-1/3 innings this season.
 
• Saturday: Freshman right-hander Drew Daczkowski matched his career highs in both innings pitched and strikeouts in a loss against the Runnin' Bulldogs last weekend but took the loss to drop to 2-3 on the season. The right-hander struck out seven in seven innings of work against GWU. He is now 2-3 with a 3.65 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 37 innings this season.
 
• Sunday: Freshman right-hander Trevor Holloway returns to the bump after picking up his second win of the season on last weekend. Holloway lasted six innings and allowed six runs, five earned on nine hits with three strikeouts. He is 2-3 this season with a 4.46 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 36-1/3 innings.
 
Last Time Out: High Point picked up its fourth win in the past five games with a 9-5 victory on the road at North Carolina A&T on Tuesday. The Panthers jumped out to a 7-1 lead that it never relinquished. Junior Hunter Lee went 3-4 with two doubles in the win and matched his career high with four RBI. Redshirt-senior Tim Mansfield and junior Carson Jackson both recorded multiple hits in the contest, finishing 2-5 on the night. Freshman Joe Johnson earned the win for the Panthers on the mound, improving to 2-0 on the season. Johnson pitched 3-1/3 innings out of the pen and allowed three earned runs on seven hits while striking out two. Senior Jeremy Johnson got his first save of the season with 1-1/3 innings of scoreless work in which he allowed one hit and struck out one.
 
Last Weekend: High Point claimed its first Big South series of the season, taking two of three games from Gardner-Webb at Williard Stadium. It was the first conference home series of the season for the Panthers after opening up Big South play at Liberty and Winthrop. High Point hit .359 as a team with four players hitting .444 or better in the three games. Junior Austen Zente went 3-10 with two home runs, two walks, seven RBI and four runs scored and was named the Big South Player of the Week. Junior Blake Schunk went 8-12 with three doubles and four RBI in the three games while junior Carson Jackson went 7-12 with two doubles, a home run and four runs scored. Sophomore Andrew Gottfried allowed four runs, three earned with a career-high eight strikeouts in 7-2/3 innings of work. Sophomore Matt Hodges appeared in two games and picked up his league-high fifth win of the season in the series opener on Friday.

Zente Named Big South Player of the Week: Junior Austen Zente was named the Big South Player of the Week on April 3 after hitting . 389 (7-18) in five games and led HPU with three home runs, 11 RBI and six runs scored. The junior also drew four walks and went 2-2 on stolen bases for the week. Zente is the first Panther to be named Big South Player of the Week since Chris Clare received the honor on April 11 of last season.

Schunk Surging: Since claiming the starting job at third base job at Liberty, Blake Schunk has been one of the top hitters in the Big South. The junior has hit gone 21-48 (.438) over the past 13 games with seven doubles, seven RBI and eight runs scored. Against Gardner-Webb, Schunk went 8-12 with three doubles, four RBI and two runs scored.
 
Panther Bats Batter Runnin' Bulldogs: High Point had a season-high 19 hits in series-clinching win over Gardner-Webb on April 2. All nine Panther starters recorded at least one hit and six players had multiple hits, led by junior Blake Schunk who went 4-4 with a three doubles, three RBI and a run scored. Junior Spencer Brown went 3-5 with three RBI and a run scored while juniors Austen Zente, Carson Jackson and Hunter Lee and sophomore Connor Dunbar all had two hits in the win. HPU's previous season high for hits was 18 in the win at Davidson on Feb. 21.
 
Greene Reemerging: Senior Josh Greene has started each of the past 21 games and is hitting .286 (20-70) with three home runs, 12 RBI and 12 runs scored in those games. He has eight extra-base hits during that span, including three home runs which he hit in three-straight games for the Panthers. Greene is also tied for the team lead with 11 stolen bases. He had a career-high three steals at North Carolina Central and two at North Carolina A&T.

Fireman Hodges: Sophomore left-hander Matt Hodges has become one of the Panthers' top relievers in his second year with the club, appearing in a team-high 14 games and leading the Big South lead with five wins. The left-hander is 5-1 on the season with a 3.75 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 24 innings of work.
 
Power Surge: High Point has shown much more pop at the plate this season with 27 home runs in 28 games, third in the Big South behind Gardner-Webb and Campbell. The Panthers are on pace to surpass the program Div. I record of 56 home runs set in 2010. Junior Austen Zente is tied for second in the Big South with seven home runs while junior Carson Jackson is tied for fifth in the conference with six home runs.
 
Start'em Young: The High Point pitching staff has relied on youth this season as underclassmen have pitched 195 of 247 innings (78.9 percent) for the Panthers in 2017. All but one of HPU's 27 games this season have been started by underclassmen including seven each by freshmen Trevor Holloway and Drew Daczkowski.
 
Long Ball Brings Down Owls: High Point hit five home runs in the series against Kennesaw State, including four in the series finale. Senior Josh Greene and junior Hunter Lee both had two home runs on the weekend. In the final game at KSU, High Point led off four-straight innings with solo home runs as Lee hit one in both the second and fourth, Greene hit one in the third and junior Austen Zente had one in the fifth.
 
Daczkowski Named Big South Freshman of the Week: Freshman right-hander Drew Daczkowski was named the Big South Come Ready Nutrition Freshman of the Week on March 6. Daczkowski earned his first collegiate win with seven innings of work against Army on Saturday. The right-hander allowed just two earned runs on three hits and a walk while striking out a career-high seven. In three starts this season, Daczkowski is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 15-1/3 innings.
 
Carson Jackson Named National POW: Junior Carson Jackson was named one of Collegiate Baseball's National Players of the Week on Feb. 20 after helping to lead the Panthers to a weekend series win over NJIT. Jackson went 5-11 at the plate with three home runs, five RBI and five runs scored. He had two home runs in High Point's come-from-behind win on Sunday making him the 15th player in HPU's Div. I history to record a multi-HR game.
 
Panthers launch four HRs in series finale vs. NJIT: High Point hit four home runs in the come-from-behind win over NJIT on Sunday. It was the most home runs in a game by the Purple & White since 2010 and one shy of the Panthers' Div. I single-game record. Junior Carson Jackson had two home runs and juniors Jordan Sergent and Austen Zente both had one. All six High Point runs in the game came by way of the long ball, including two on Zente's home run in the eighth inning that put HPU in front.
 
Up Next: The Panthers head to nearby Elon, N.C., for a midweek contest against the Phoenix of Elon University on Tuesday, April 11. It is the second of two games between the two teams this season. HPU will try and even the series with a win after dropping the first contest by a score of 14-8 at Williard Stadium on March 28.

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