SERIES INFO

Friday, May 7 -- vs. USC Upstate (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), 6 p.m.
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Saturday, May 8 -- vs. USC Upstate (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), 2 p.m.
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Saturday, May 8 -- vs. USC Upstate (Williard Stadium, High Point, N.C.), Approximately 5:30 p.m.
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The High Point University baseball team (14-21, 12-15 Big South) returns home for a three-game series with conference-leading USC Upstate (30-10, 21-9 Big South) this weekend. Friday (May 7) is Senior Night as the Panthers will honor their seven seniors prior to the 6 p.m. start before concluding the series with a doubleheader on Saturday (May 8) that starts at 2 p.m.
 

Matchup History

• High Point and USC Upstate have only played each other eight times heading into the weekend, with three of those coming earlier in the season.
• The Panthers took one of the three in a weekend series in Spartanburg in March, winning the first game on Friday for the only loss of the season for the Spartans' ace, Jordan Marks.
• Upstate has only made the trip to the Triad for one game, with HPU winning in 6-5 in 11 innings back in 2008 in the second meeting between the two teams.

Across the Diamond

• Upstate is 30-10 on the season and 21-9 in conference play, with the lone non-conference loss coming Wednesday evening (May 5) at Clemson.
• The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Spartans, a streak that is still active in conference play.
• Upstate has one of the best pitching staffs in the country, entering Friday with an ERA of 2.94 as a team for the sixth-lowest ERA among Division I programs.
• The Spartans have tossed five shutouts this season to be one of just 28 teams in the country to blank an opponent at least five times and sit 18th in the country in WHIP with a mark of 1.23.
• Upstate is also strong at the plate, entering the weekend 19th in the country in batting average with a .302 mark as a team, one of 23 teams batting .300 or better this late in the season.
• Seven of Upstate's primary starters bat above .300, with three hitting .333 or better. Jack Hennessy leads the team with a .358 average, followed by Devin Buckner at .350 and Jeff Taylor at .333.
• Hennessy and Buckner are two of the five Spartans with more than 45 hits on the year, with Jason Matthews leading the way with 52.
• Jordan Marks is one of the top pitchers in the conference and leads the Big South in ERA with a 1.54 mark that puts him 12th in the country. He has 83 strikeouts this season to put him 23rd in the nation and atop the conference as well.
• Upstate also has the second-best ERA in the conference in its rotation as Alex Garbrick sits 39th in the country with an ERA of 2.12.
• Kevin Davis is the Spartan's closer and has seven saves on the season to sit 18th in the country and carries an ERA of 0.86 into Friday.

Panther Notes

Last Time Out

High Point won the weekend series at Winthrop the last time out, taking game one 11-2 before splitting a doubleheader on May Day. Winthrop won the first game of the twin bill 11-10 with a walk-off homer in extras before the Panthers closed the day in an offensive slugfest with a 19-15 win in the longest game of the season for the Purple and White.
 

Thank You Seniors!

High Point will recognize its seven-player graduating class before Friday's game begins. 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 in Friday's win 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 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 this week as Lyttle shared the Relief Pitcher of the Week award for his outing on Saturday. This is the first time since the opening week of the 2020 season that HPU has had multiple award winners in the same week.
 

A Full Day at the Ballpark

Saturday 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 Whtie 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.
 

Holtah the Hittah

Travis Holt had himself a series against Winthrop, finishing with nine RBIs in the three games, including five in the series finale. The five RBIs are a career high and the most for any Panther this season. It's only the third time in the last four years that an HPU player recorded five RBIs in a game and the first since Evan Bergman drove in five in 2020's season-opener against Lafayette.
 

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 23 of his last 28 games, including 11 of the last 12. He leads the team with a .370 batting average, .458 on base percentage, and 44 hits, is tied for the lead in RBIs (26), and is second in doubles (9).
 

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 Friday's 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).
  

Yo Pearre, You Wanna Come Out Here?

Brady Pearre had his second four-hit game of the season against Winthrop 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.
 

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 to make it just the 16th game in High Point's 1,166 Division I games that the Purple and Whtie 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.
 

Sutton Place

Blake Sutton had a career-high three hits in the final game at Radford to be the only Panther with multiple hits in the game. Sutton also had two hits in the win in the game before to make it three times he's had back-to-back multiple-hit games. He followed that up by picking up hits in each of the two games he had an at bat in against Winthrop for a four-game hitting streak that is intact heading into the weekend series with Upstate
 

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 Joe 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 60th in the country in total strikeouts after 12 appearances with 74 on the season, including a season-high 10 in the save against Winthrop. That bumped his average up to 10.68 strikeouts per nine innings, the second-best mark in the Big South.
  

Seeing Double

Johnson has hit 14 doubles this season, the third-most in the Big South by one and the 38th-most in the country. He averages 0.40 doubles per game to also sit third in the conference and 28th in the nation. As a team, High Point averages 1.88 doubles per game for the second-best average in the Big South and 67th in the country.
 

A Trio in Double Digits

With Singsank picking up his fifth three-hit game of the season against Campbell last Tuesday, he became the third Panther this season to have double-digit games with multiple hits. Johnson and Singsank lead the team with 13 such games while Peyton Carr sits right behind the duo with 12. Singsank's seven games of three hits or more are the most of any Panther this season.
 

Going Streaking

Singsank leads the team with an 18-game on-base streak and rides a five-game hitting streak into the Upstate series. Cameron Irvine is the only Panther with a longer hitting streak as he has picked up a base hit in his last six games.
 
 
Up Next: High Point has its final midweek game of the season on Tuesday (May 11) as the Panthers head back up to Farmville, Va. for a 6 p.m. contest at Longwood before returning home for the final home series of the year next weekend (May 14-15).