** DUE TO FORECASTED INCLEMENT WEATHER, FRIDAY'S GAME HAS BEEN MOVED TO SATURDAY AS PART OF A DOUBLEHEADER. FIRST PITCH IN GAME ONE HAS BEEN MOVED BACK TO 3 P.M. **

Game Notes

HIGH POINT, N.C. - The High Point University baseball team finishes the regular season with a three-game homestand against Presbyterian. First pitch on Thursday and Friday is scheduled for 3 p.m. with a 1 p.m. start on Saturday. HPU has won four of five and gone 6-3 in May while Presbyterian swiped two of three from Longwood last weekend.

With inclement weather forecasted for the Triad area, stay tuned for schedule changes and game updates.
 

Date	HPU Probable Pitcher	Presbyterian Probable Pitcher	Live Video	Live Stats
Thursday, May 17 3 p.m.	RHP Andrew Gottfried, Jr. (4-5, 3.51)	RHP Tanner Crock, Sr. (3-2, 4.48)	Link	Link
Saturday, May 19 3 p.m.	RHP Harrison Smith, R-So. (1-4, 6.81)	RHP Eric Miles, So. (6-4, 4.58)	Link	Link
Saturday, May 19 Game 2	RHP Muhammed Eid, So. (2-0, 4.36)	RHP Jackson Dean, R-So. (0-4, 4.47)	Link	Link

  
History vs. Presbyterian: The Blue Hose signify the least common Big South opponent for the Panthers. HPU and PC have met just 21 times since 2009 with the Panthers claiming 12 wins, including an 8-4 mark at Williard Stadium. High Point swept a doubleheader in Clinton last year to take two of three in the series, and have won five of the last six matchups. In four series played in High Point, the Panthers have recorded two series sweeps.

The Blue Hose: Presbyterian comes in on the cut line of the Big South Tournament with an 8-16 conference record. The Blue Hose are in a three-way tie for seventh, but hold the tiebreaker over Charleston Southern and Longwood. Jonathan White and AJ Priaulx are two of the top offensive threats in the league, batting .351 and .347 respectively. The duo has accounted for 14 home runs and 79 RBI. On the hill, the Blue Hose hold a 6.16 team ERA, eighth in the circuit.

Last Time Out: High Point stormed back from a 7-0 deficit to take an 8-7 lead in the top of the ninth at Wake Forest on Tuesday, only to fall 9-8 in walk-off fashion. Senior Austen Zente belted the Panthers' first grand slam in over two years to cap a five-run seventh inning while back-to-back walks in the ninth plated two of the three runs.

Brooming the Bulldogs: 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.

Here's the Situation: High Point enters the final weekend of the season alone in second place in the Big South, a game ahead of Liberty. The Panthers must finish ahead of the Flames as they do not hold the tiebreaker. Any combination of three HPU wins or Liberty losses secures the No. 2 seed for High Point. The No. 2 seed would tie for the highest in school history with the 2016 team. HPU can finish no lower than the No. 3 seed for next week's conference tournament.

Keeping The Good Times Rolling: With its win on Sunday at UNC Asheville, High Point assured itself of a fifth straight winning year, 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 113 as of Wednesday's report. 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 6-47 record against such teams. The Panthers are the only team in the Big South with a winning road (16-11) and home record (11-9).

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 has reached base seven times in the three games since. Lee drew a walk in the ninth inning on Tuesday at Wake Forest, breaking the school record for free passes with 113.

It Starts At The Top: Since missing four games and returning from injury on March 17, senior Austen Zente has been on fire, hitting .349 (44-for-126) with five doubles, a triple, 12 home runs, 43 runs scored, and 32 RBI in 32 games. This year, Zente has scored a team-high 50 runs in 106 times on base, a 47.2% success rate. Since returning from injury, though, Zente has reached base 80 times in 32 games and scored a preposterous 43 times (53.8% 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 has since tallied two more doubles for 55 total). 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 37th nationally in homers this year with 51, 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 48 blasts in the last 34 contests.

High Point has surpassed its total from last year (43) and is five shy of the Div. I school record (56) set in 2010. The Panthers are one of 20 teams in the nation to have at least 11 players hit a homer.

Keep Hitting Austen: Senior Austen Zente has been beaned 24 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 second- and fourth-most single-season HBP. He is one shy of tying the single-season school record (Nate Roberts, 25, 2008)

Zente has already broken the school record for most career HBP with 57 in just three full seasons of action.

Up Next: High Point heads to the Big South Tournament in Lynchburg, Va. hosted by Liberty with play beginning on Tuesday. The double-elimination format kicks off with four games on Tuesday and Wednesday before elimination games on Thursday.

The semifinals and if-needed games will be played Friday with the winner-take-all championship set for a 12 p.m. start on Saturday afternoon.

#GoHPU