Box Score (PDF)

• After recording 12 strikeouts on Friday, HPU's pitchers struck out 15 Dukes on Sunday afternoon.
• Junior Conner Dunbar collected his first multi-hit game of the season, going 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and an RBI
• Sophomore Grey Lyttle struck out five hitters in 2.1 innings of relief.

HIGH POINT, N.C. - James Madison hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning to open a lead they would never relinquish as the High Point University baseball team dropped the middle game of the three-game series, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon at Williard Stadium.

With two down in the first, the Dukes' (2-0) Adam Sisk and Conor Hartigan launched consecutive pitches out to left field for solo homers and a 2-0 lead. High Point (0-2) starter Andrew Gottfried would settle down after the dingers, yielding just one hit in the remainder of his outing. Gottfried (0-1) tossed 4.1 innings, allowing two runs on three hits and a pair of walks. The righthander struck out seven as Panther pitching racked up 15 strikeouts on the afternoon.

HPU cut the deficit in half in the last of the fifth on an RBI single from sophomore Conner Dunbar, driving in pinch-runner freshman Jacob Winger. The Panthers once again struggled with runners in scoring position on the afternoon as a whole, though, going 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 runners on base.

JMU added single tallies in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings to pull away for the victory. Daniel Goggin earned the victory for the Dukes, allowing a run on four hits in five innings. Goggin (1-0) struck out three and walked two.

Sophomore reliever Grey Lyttle tossed 2.1 innings out of the bullpen for High Point, striking out five, one shy of a career high. Dunbar led the Panthers offense with his ninth career mutli-hit game, going 2-for-3 with two walks and an RBI.

The Panthers and Dukes will complete the series in game two of the doubleheader, scheduled to start at 4 p.m.

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