Game Notes

HIGH POINT, N.C. - The High Point University baseball team heads to the mountains for its final Big South road series of the season, a three-game set at UNC Asheville. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m. with a 3 p.m. start on Saturday and 1 p.m. first pitch on Sunday.

Friday and Sunday's game will be broadcast on the Big South Network. Saturday's contest is only available via ESPN+ with a required subscription. The service features a seven-day free trail with a $4.99 monthly charge after (Subscribe here).
 

Date	HPU Probable Pitcher	Asheville Probable Pitcher	Live Video	Live Stats
Friday, May 11 6 p.m.	RHP Andrew Gottfried, Jr. (4-5, 3.81)	RHP Blake Brown, So. (0-5, 5.96)	Link	Link
Saturday, May 12 3 p.m.	RHP Joe Johnson, So. (3-0, 3.86)	LHP Greg Gasparro, So. (2-6, 4.33)	Link ($)	Link
Sunday, May 13 1 p.m.	RHP Harrison Smith, R-So. (0-4, 8.03)	TBA	Link	Link

  
History vs. UNC Asheville: High Point leads the all-time series between the two, 36-22, and has dominated in recent years. The Panthers took two of three a year ago and have won 14 of the last 16 dating back to 2012. HPU is 16-8 all-time in Asheville, having swept the last two series played at Greenwood Field in 2016 and 2013.

The 16-8 road mark is the second-best for HPU against league foes, trailing only its success at Longwood (9-2).

The Bulldogs: Asheville begins the weekend tied for seventh in the Big South and holding on to the eighth and final tournament spot, one game ahead of both Charleston Southern and Presbyterian. In its most recent conference series, UNC Asheville swiped two of three from Gardner-Webb from April 27-29. The Bulldogs are eighth in the league in hitting at .235 and are ninth with a 6.66 team ERA.

Danny Wilson leads the team in average at .281 while Brandon Lankford is the Bulldogs' top power threat with a team-leading 11 doubles, eight home runs and 26 RBI.

Last Time Out: HPU continued its string of success in the mid-week with a 6-5 comeback win at Elon on Tuesday. Redshirt-junior Daniel Millwee provided the game-winning knock with a two-run single in the top of the ninth inning. Freshman Tanner Wells tied a career-high with three hits, including a pair of doubles, and drove in a career-best three runs.

Sophomore Muhammed Eid tossed a career-high six innings on the hill while junior Nick Niarchos earned his first career save by pitching the bottom of the ninth.

Best Start Ever: High Point was the last team in the Big South to not drop a series thus far this year, winning its first five series with one sweep (at Charleston Southern). Even with two losses this past weekend, HPU has tied its best conference start ever at 13-8, matching the mark from 2016. The Panthers need five wins in their final six Big South games to tie the school record for most conference wins (18-9, 2014).

Inside The Numbers: HPU possesses the Big South's second-highest RPI at 121 as of Thursday's report (Campbell 118). The solid rating has been buoyed by a 3-2 mark against top-50 RPI teams (Coastal Carolina x2, Ohio State) with the rest of the league combining to post a 6-46 record against such teams.

The Panthers are the only team in the Big South with a winning road (13-10) and home record (11-9). By the strength of schedule metric, HPU has played the second-toughest schedule in the league this year (158), trailing only Campbell (142).

Unlikely Source Stabilizes Rotation: Sophomore Joe Johnson has come on and provided three tremendous starts since joining the rotation on April 14. Johnson had never made a start and had made just 16 relief appearances in two years prior to his start at Gardner-Webb, but has allowed only three earned runs in 19.1 innings in three starts (1.40 ERA) since.

Johnson has matched his career high with seven innings pitched twice, and set a new career best with six strikeouts in a victory at Campbell on Saturday.

Bomb Squad: High Point's bats have been held in check recently week with just three home runs in the last 10 games. However, the Panthers had belted 23 dingers in the previous eight games.

HPU continues to leads the Big South and ranks 37th nationally in homers this year with 47, including 31 against the Big South in 21 games. The Panthers started slow, hitting only three homers in the first 13 games, but have struck for 44 blasts in the last 30 contests.

High Point has surpassed its total from last year (43) and is nine shy of the Div. I school record (56) set in 2010. The Panthers are one of 21 teams in the nation to have at least 11 players hit a homer.

Lean on Lee: Senior Hunter Lee saw his career-best 28-game hitting streak come to an end on April 20, four games shy of tying the all-time school record. Lee's streak was the second-longest streak in the NCAA this year (Jameson Hannah, Dallas Baptist, 35).

During the stretch, Lee was 47-for-113 (.416) with 15 multi-hit games (nine of the last 12) and 28 RBI. He has now hit safely in 40 of 45 games this year and is still riding a 37-game on-base streak, reaching safely twice via walk on Tuesday at Elon.

It Starts At The Top: Senior Austen Zente missed four games from 3/10-16 after colliding with the wall in HPU's victory over Coastal Carolina on 3/9. Since his return on March 17, Zente has been on fire, hitting .339 (37-for-109) with five doubles, a triple, 10 home runs, 37 runs scored, and 25 RBI.

This year, Zente has scored a team-high 44 runs in 94 times on base, a 46.8% success rate. Since returning from injury, though, Zente has reached base 68 times in 28 games and scored a preposterous 37 times (54.4% success rate).

Keep Hitting Austen: Senior Austen Zente has been beaned 23 times this year, the second-most in the NCAA. This is nothing new for Zente, who was hit by 21 pitches a year ago, and now owns the third- and fourth-most single-season HBP. He is two shy of tying the single-season school record (Nate Roberts, 25, 2008)

Zente has already broken the school record for most career HBP with 56 in just three full seasons of action.

Among The Best: Senior Carson Jackson laced a leadoff double in the second inning on April 22 vs Liberty, tying the all-time school record with his 52nd two-bagger. In addition to his school-record total, Jackson ranks among HPU's top 10 in at-bats (2nd), hits (3rd), RBI (4th), runs (6th), games played (9th), and home runs (10th).

Focusing on Offense: Since senior Jordan Sergent was moved out of the weekend rotation and back to a utility position player, his offensive numbers have taken off, culminating in an 11-game hitting streak that was ended on Friday.

In six games where Sergent pitched and was also in the starting lineup, he was hitting just .120 (3-for-25). Outside of that, he has posted a .285 average (35-for-123) in 37 appearances. Over his 11-game hitting streak, he hit .319 (15-for-47) with four extra-base hits, and increased his season average 27 points to .274.

Up Next: High Point plays its final road game of the regular season on Tuesday at Wake Forest. The Panthers then finish the Big South slate with a three-game series against Presbyterian next Thursday-Saturday at home.

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