SERIES INFO
Friday, May 14 -- vs. Presbyterian (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), 6 p.m.
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Saturday, May 15 -- vs. Presbyterian (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), 2 p.m.
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Saturday, May 15 -- vs. Presbyterian (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), Approximately 5:30 p.m.
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The High Point University baseball team (14-25, 12-19 Big South) plays its final home games of the 2021 season this weekend when Presbyterian (14-20, 13-15 Big South) visits Williard Stadium for a trio of games. The series will start Friday (May 14) at 6 p.m. before concluding with a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday (May 15).
 
Matchup History

• High Point and Presbyterian have played each other 28 times in HPU's Division I history entering the weekend, with the Panthers holding an 18-10 advantage in the series.
• The teams last met in the 2019 Big South Tournament where the Purple and White defeated the Blue Hose 15-4 behind a complete game from Muhammed Eid and a 6-6 night at the plate with four RBIs from Joe Johnson.
• High Point fares well against PC at home, entering Friday with an 11-4 mark against the Blue Hose when playing at Williard Stadium.

Across the Diamond

• Presbyterian is 14-20 on the season and is 13-15 in Big South play to occupy the important fourth spot in the conference standings.
• The Blue Hose last won a weekend series from April 23-25 when PC took two of three against Campbell.
• Presbyterian's pitching staff has a high ERA but doesn't give up a lot of walks when compared to the rest of the Big South, entering the weekend with a walks per nine innings mark of 4.40 to sit third in the conference.
• PC is also third in the Big South in home runs per game as the Blue Hose have hit 28 homers on the season for an average of 0.82 each contest.
• Zacchaeus Rasberry is the only PC batter hitting over .300 and enters the weekend with a .305 average and a team-leading 26 runs scored and six home runs.
• Eric Toth leads Presbyterian in hits (38), RBIs (26), and doubles (10), and is second on the team in batting average (.268), runs scored (23), and home runs (5) heading into Friday's game. Toth has also made 11 appearances out of the bullpen and carries a 2.25 ERA with 16 strikeouts and a team-high five saves in 24.0 innings of action into the weekend.
• Projected Saturday starter Charlie McDaniel is PC's top starter in terms of ERA with a mark of 4.32 in 50.0 innings.
• Sunday starter Duncan is right behind him with an ERA of 4.54 in 41.2 innings while both pitchers have tallied 23 strikeouts on the year to tie for third on the team.

Panther Notes
Last Time Out
High Point lost its final midweek game of the season on Tuesday (May 11), falling 1-8 to Longwood. Brady Pearre was the bright spot for the Panthers as he went a perfect 3-3 at the plate and drew a walk in the contest. HPU's defense continued to turn double plays as the Purple and White racked up three in the loss at Longwood to make it eight double plays turned in the last two games.
 
Yo Pearre, You Wanna Come Out Here?
Pearre also had a strong game two weekends ago against Winthrop where he had his second four-hit game of the season in the final game, going 4-6 with the triple and scoring three runs. He also had four hits and three runs scored in the win at Charleston Southern one month earlier, while also driving in two runs in that game as part and hit a solo home run in the first inning.
 
Finally Getting Their First
Three of the four Panthers that hit their first home runs of the season against USC Upstate last weekend did it on Friday, with Blake Sutton, Travis Holt, and Cameron Irvine all leaving the park in the series opener. For Sutton and Irvine, it was their first career home runs as well. Jackson Melton followed suit in the middle game of the series, launching a no-doubter over the creek and Greenway in left.
 
Tic Tac Toe, Three in a Row
Not only did Holt homer in the series opener, he also hit one in the other two games of the weekend to be the first HPU player to go yard in three consecutive games since Blake Schunk did so in 2018. He also became the first member of the Purple and White to leave the park in every game of a three-game series since Mark Shorey hit one in each game of a weekend series against Radford back in 2006.
 
Holtah the Hittah
Holt was on a tear over the last two weeks, totaling 11 hits and 16 RBIs in the six games against Winthrop and Upstate. He had five RBIs in the final game against Winthrop for a career high and the most from any Panther this season. It's only the third time in the last four years that an HPU player has recorded five RBIs in a game and the first since Evan Bergman drove in five in 2020's season-opener against Lafayette. Holt's hitting streak ended at Longwood one game shy of his career high at eight games, while his batting average rose 0.48 over the six games against Winthrop and Upstate.
 
A Quintuple of Twin Killings
HPU turned five double plays in the final game of the series against Upstate, matching the program record for double plays in a single game. The Panthers ended the first, second, fourth, seventh, and ninth innings by turning two. High Point has only turned five DPs in a game once before, coming in a 7-4 victory at Presbyterian on May 14, 2010. The Purple and White have now turned 31 double plays on the season to sit third in the Big South while their average of 0.79 per game ranks second in the conference.
 
Thank You Seniors!
High Point recognized its seven-player graduating class before last Friday's game against Upstate began, as part of a tradition of having Senior Night during graduation weekend. The senior class includes graduate students Chris Apecechea, Joe Johnson, and Grey Lyttle, redshirt senior Ryan Russell, and redshirt juniors Nick Hernandez, Travis Holt, and Trevor Omahen.
 
You Complete Me
Freshman Teddy Merritt went the distance against Winthrop in the series opener, throwing High Point's first complete game since Muhammed Eid threw one in the 2019 Big South Tournament and the sixth complete game from a Big South pitcher this season. Merritt only allowed five hits and two unearned runs for the first HPU complete game without an earned run since the last complete game shutout that Conor Lourey had in the 2015 Big South Tournament. 
 
Start Me Up
Merritt was rewarded for his efforts with the Starting Pitcher of the Week honor from the Big South, High Point's second Starting Pitcher of the Week award this season and the first freshman to be named Starting Pitcher of the Week this year.
 
The Alpha and the Omega
Grey Lyttle began and ended the doubleheader day in Rock Hill on May Day on the mound for the Panthers as he started game one and was called on to close out game two, to become the only pitcher in the country to start game one of a doubleheader and close the second game this season.
 
Ring 'Em Up
Lyttle came in for the final 10 outs of the game and recorded 10 strikeouts in that span, with two reaching on a dropped third strike, for the first 10-strikeout performance the Purple and White have had since Harrison Smith threw 11 in a start in the 2019 season. Lyttle's also just one of two pitchers this season to match the number of outs with strikeouts in a multi-inning relief appearance as USC Upstate's Kevin Davis tallied eight strikeouts in as many outs against Toledo on Feb. 21.
 
A Sigh of Relief
The Panthers took home two weekly honors from the Big South after the Winthrop weekend as Lyttle shared the Relief Pitcher of the Week award for his outing against the Eagles. This is the first time since the opening week of the 2020 season that HPU has had multiple award winners in the same week.
 
Climbing the Ranks
Lyttle picked up four strikeouts against Upstate, bringing his career total up to 220 - the seventh most in school history and just the fifth pitcher in HPU's Division I era to reach the 200-strikeout mark. He averages 10.24 strikeouts per nine innings, putting him second in the category in HPU's history among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched.
 
A Full Day at the Ballpark
May 1 was a long day of baseball for High Point and Winthrop as both games lasted longer than three hours and 45 minutes and had a combined game total of seven hours and 56 minutes and was the first extra-inning game of the season for the Panthers. The second game lasted four hours and eight minutes and was HPU's first four-hour game since a loss to Liberty in 2018 that lasted 4:17. Only one other doubleheader in all of college baseball this season has lasted longer than 7:56 of game time as Western Carolina and Wofford played for eight hours and 11 minutes after game lengths of 3:45 and 4:26.
 
Going on Strike(s)
High Point totaled 16 strikeouts as a pitching staff in the second game of the doubleheader at Winthrop for the most all season and most since throwing 16 Ks against North Carolina Central in 2019. It's just the fifth time the Purple and White have totaled 16 strikeouts in a game in their Division I history and finished one away from matching the D1 program record of 17 set at Winthrop in 2006.
 
Hopping on the Cole Train
Cole Singsank had a big week at Winthrop, totaling eight hits over the weekend, including a career-best four hits in the first game of the series. After going hitless in his first five games of the season, Singsank has played his way into the starting lineup and has recorded a hit in 26 of his last 32 games, including 14 of the last 16. He leads the team with a .351 batting average, .441 on base percentage, and 47 hits, is tied for the lead in RBIs (29), and is second in doubles (11).
 
Doing an AB Workout
High Point was credited with 43 at bats in the third game of the series with the Eagles for the most all season and most since recording as many in the 2019 Big South Tournament against Presbyterian. After having 42 at bats in the series-opening win, it's the first time the Purple and White have had more than 40 at bats in multiple games of a weekend series since doing it in all three games in a sweep of Radford during the 2013 season (42-43-41).
 
19s Wild
The Panthers scored 19 runs in the final game at Winthrop for just the sixth time in its Division I history and the first time since putting up a record-tying 25 runs against North Carolina A&T in 2014. HPU also recorded 19 hits in the game to mark the 18th time this season reaching double digits in the hit column and the third game with 15 or more. The 19 hits are the most since picking up as many in last year's season-opener with Lafayette.
 
Jumbo Combo
High Point and Winthrop combined for 34 runs in the final game, tied for the fourth-most combined runs in a game in HPU's D1 history and the most since the Panthers and Radford totaled 35 in an 18-17 loss to the Highlanders in April of 2010. The teams combined for 55 runs total in the two games on May 1 for the second-most runs in one day of baseball this season after Dayton and Xavier put up a total of 65 runs in a doubleheader on April 3.
 
Runs for Days
The Purple and White scored a total of 40 runs against the Eagles, which also dates back to 2010 as the most runs High Point has scored in a three-game conference series since putting up 41 on Charleston Southern in the final weekend of the regular season that year.
 
2x3
Holt and Pearre each legged out a triple in the second game of the doubleheader at Winthrop to make it just the 16th game in High Point's 1,170 Division I games that the Purple and White ended the day with multiple triples and the first since the Panthers hit three against Ohio State in 2018.
 
Home Sweet Home
On April 27 against UNCG, High Point played its only home game in the month of April and was the first time a baseball game was played at Williard Stadium since March 28 - 30 days and 11 games apart. It was the longest stretch of days without a home game in HPU's Division I history and the longest stretch of games away from Williard since the 2010 season when the Purple and White ended the year with seven road games and four neutral-site games in the Big South Tournament. The 2010 season also saw a longer streak of true road games as HPU played 12 consecutive games in the opponent's ballpark from March 25 to April 11.
 
Grand Salami Time
Adam Stuart hit a grand slam in the midweek matchup against Campbell on April 20 for the first slam that HPU has hit since the 2018 season when Austen Zente hit one in a loss to Wake Forest on May 15, 2018.
 
Analytically Speaking
Lyttle and Johnson were both named in the top 100 draft-eligible pitchers and hitters, respectively, by D1 Baseball according to their analytic process in April. Lyttle was ranked as the 51st-best pitcher in the rankings while Johnson checked in at 69th in the hitting ranks.
 
Not so Lyttle
Lyttle finds himself third in the Big South and 75th in the country in total strikeouts after 13 appearances with 78 on the season, including a season-high 10 in the save against Winthrop. His strikeouts per nine innings this season of 10.5 currently ranks third in the Big South
  
Seeing Double
Johnson has hit 14 doubles this season, the fifth-most in the Big South by two and the 67th-most in the country. He averages 0.36 doubles per game to sit fifth in the conference and 72nd in the nation. As a team, High Point averages 1.82 doubles per game for the second-best average in the Big South and 84th in the country.
 
Five in Double Digits
With Pearre picking up his fifth game of at least three hits with a trio at Longwood, High Point has five players with double-digit multi-hit games. Johnson leads the team with 15 such games while Singsank and Peyton Carr are right behind him with 13 and Pearre and Sutton each have 10. Singsank's seven games of three hits or more are the most of any Panther this season.
 

Up Next: High Point closes out the regular season with a three-game series at Campbell next Thursday (May 20) and Friday (May 21).