Game Notes

HIGH POINT, N.C. - The High Point University baseball team finishes its eight-game road swing with a trip across the Triad to take on Wake Forest on Tuesday at 6 p.m. aiming to sweep the season series. HPU has tied its longest winning streak of the year with straight triumphs while Wake enters after getting swept at NC State this weekend.
 

Date	HPU Probable Pitcher	Wake Forest Probable Pitcher	Live Video	Live Stats
Tuesday, May 15 6 p.m.	LHP Jordan Sergent, Sr. (1-3, 7.06)	LHP Jared Shuster, Fr. (0-3, 8.04)	Link	Link

  
History vs. Wake Forest: High Point and Wake Forest have matched up 42 times since HPU moved to Div. I. After Wake dominated the early portions of the series (19-4 in first 23 meetings), the Panthers have posted a respectable 8-11 mark in Craig Cozart's tenure, including consecutive wins

HPU has assured itself of at least a series split for the fourth time in the last five seasons thanks to an 8-4 win on May 1 headlined by an eight-run fourth inning. The Panthers have never swept the Demon Deacons since moving to Div. I in 1999-2000.

The Demon Deacons: Wake Forest has boasted a youthful team this season that has led to a sub-.500 mark thus far. Nearly half of their position player starts are from freshman while two-thirds of the IP come via underclassmen. The Deacs are hitting .254 as a team, led by Jake Mueller's .304 clip, adding a homer and 17 RBI. Johnny Aiello leads Wake in homers (8) and RBI (36). WF posts a 4.87 team ERA thus far.

About the Weekend: High Point completed its second Big South series sweep of the year with a three-game brooming at UNC Asheville. The Panthers outscored the Bulldogs 25-8 and touted a .354 team average while limiting Asheville to .214. All nine starters had at least two hits in the series, led by senior Jordan Sergent, who was 7-for-12 (.583) with two doubles and two home runs. HPU used eight pitchers in the series with six hurlers allowing one run or fewer in total.

Keeping The Good Times Rolling: Entering the final week of the season, High Point has already assured itself of a fifth straight winning campaign, the longest streak in the school's Div. I era. It is only bested by 15 straight winning seasons in the NAIA days from 1969-1983.

Best Start Ever: High Point has won six of its eight conference series this year with two sweeps, and has become just the second team in program history to win 16 conference games. The Panthers need two wins this weekend against Presbyterian to tie the school record for most conference wins (18-9, 2014).

Inside The Numbers: HPU possesses the Big South's highest RPI at 109 as of Monday's report. The solid rating has been buoyed by a 4-3 mark against top-50 RPI teams (Coastal Carolina x2, Ohio State, UNCG) with the rest of the league combining to post a 7-50 record against such teams.

The Panthers are the only team in the Big South with a winning road (16-10) and home record (11-9). HPU has already secured a top-4 seed in the conference tournament next week and can lock up the #2 seed with one more win than Liberty this weekend.

Wells Named Freshman of the Week (x4): For a record fourth time this season, freshman Tanner Wells was named the Big South Freshman of the Week on Monday. Wells was 8-for-19 (.421) with three double, five runs scored and five RBI while positing solid SLG (.579) and OBP (.421). He is the only multiple time winner in the league this year and first freshman to ever earn four weekly awards.

He joins senior Austen Zente (Player of the Week, Apr. 9), senior Rion Murrah (Relief Pitcher of the Week, Apr. 2), freshman Travis Holt (Freshman of the Week, 3/26), senior Jordan Sergent (Player of the Week, 3/19), and junior Cooper Jeffers (Relief Pitcher of the Week, 3/12), as High Point's recipients of a weekly award so far this season.

Lean on Lee: Senior Hunter Lee, who earlier this season posted the second-longest hitting streak in school history at 28 games, has continued to be a thorn in opposing pitchers' side. Lee saw his 37-game on-base streak end on Friday, but he reached base six times in the next two games. Lee drew three walks this weekend at Asheville, and is now tied for the school record with 112 free passes in his career.

It Starts At The Top: Since missing four games and returning from injury on March 17, senior Austen Zente has been on fire, hitting .352 (43-for-122) with five doubles, a triple, 11 home runs, 41 runs scored, and 28 RBI in 31 games.

This year, Zente has scored a team-high 48 runs in 104 times on base, a 46.2% success rate. Since returning from injury, though, Zente has reached base 78 times in 31 games and scored a preposterous 41 times (52.6% success rate). Against conference foes, Zente is tied for fifth with a .385 average while leading the league in slugging (.769), home runs (10), total bases (70), and steals (13).

Among The Best: Senior Carson Jackson laced an RBI double in the second inning on Saturday at Asheville, breaking the all-time school record with his 53rd two-bagger (he added his 54th on Sunday). In addition to his school-record total, Jackson ranks among HPU's top 10 in at-bats (2nd), hits (3rd), RBI (3rd), runs (5th), games played (6th), and home runs (10th).

Unlikely Source Stabilizes Rotation: Sophomore Joe Johnson has come on and provided four 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 six earned runs in 24.1 innings in three starts (2.22 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 May 5. HIs 3.38 ERA against Big South foes is seventh in the circuit while his .183 opponent's average is second.

Locking Down Late: Senior Rion Murrah posted a great weekend at UNC Asheville, earning his fourth win with two scoreless innings Friday before picking up his fifth save of the year on Sunday. Murrah is second in the Big South with a 1.83 ERA among pitchers who have average at least 1 IP/team game.

The senior has not allowed an earned run in his last eight appearances covering 12.1 innings and has tallied six straight scoreless outings overall dating back to April 21.

#SaturdaysAreForTheWins: High Point was victorious in its middle game against the Asheville, continuing its strong play on Saturday. The Panthers have now posted an 11-2 mark on Saturdays this year and have lost only one middle game of a series - the first weekend of the year against James Madison.

Bomb Squad: HPU continues to leads the Big South and ranks 39th nationally in homers this year with 50, including 34 against the Big South in 24 games. The Panthers started slow, hitting only three homers in the first 13 games, but have struck for 47 blasts in the last 33 contests.

High Point has surpassed its total from last year (43) and is six 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.

Keep Hitting Austen: Senior Austen Zente has been beaned 23 times this year, the fourth-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.

Up Next: High Point finishes the Big South slate with a three-game series against Presbyterian next Thursday-Saturday at home. Thursday and Friday's games are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. with a 1 p.m. first pitch on Senior Day Saturday.

#GoHPU