HIGH POINT, N.C. –
Sam Schner and
Dawson Harman both hit their first career home runs with the Panthers as HPU fell short in extra innings, 10-6, in game one against UMass-Lowell.
Site: Williard Stadium
Score: High Point 6, UMass-Lowell 10
Records: High Point (0-1, 0-0), UMass-Lowell (1-0, 0-0)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "Obviously not the start that we had drawn up. It's college baseball, its unfortunate you can't win them all. We were super excited about it and we came out with some energy. We got hit in the face early on, but we took that and answered. The margin for error in college baseball is razor thin and we came up on the short end tonight. We got to recover and have a quick turnaround for tomorrow."
Brett Wozniak got the start for the Panthers on opening day tonight. A rough start to the first inning allowing three runs on three hits. Wozniak would then settle down and throw for 5.0 innings, allowing seven hits, four runs, and striking out three.
High Point's first run of the season came in the bottom of the second.
Charlie Klingler hit one up the middle just under the glove of the second basemen. Schner rounded third and came home to score to cut the lead to 3-1.
In the third inning, HPU grabbed a 5-3 lead.
Adam Stuart hit a sacrifice fly to right field with the bases loaded, in to score on the tag up was
Konni Durschlag.
Cael Chatham on third base and
Brayden Simpson on first with one out, Schner stepped up to the plate and blasted one over the wall in right field for his second hit in as many at-bats.
Noah Carter came into relief in the top of the sixth with bases loaded. Carter quickly grabbed two outs on two back-to-back backward K's. He would end up grabbing a third strikeout looking as he pitched 1.1 innings, allowing three hits, two runs and striking out three.
Tyler Romanias would come to the mound in the top of the seventh being down 6-5, facing two batters.
Adam Grintz was the next man up who went 2.1 innings, allowing four hits, no runs and three strikeouts.
HPU headed to the bottom of the ninth being down 6-5 to the RiverHawks. Harman would grab the bat to hit for
Frank Kelly with one out. Harman on a 1-0 count took a letter high pitch and hammered it way over the wall in right field. The freshman from Lithia, Fla. had just drilled his first career home run in his first career at bat in a High Point uniform to tie the game at six in the bottom of the ninth.
HPU and the RiverHawks would end up going to 11 innings of play. Sean O'Leary for UMass-Lowell sent his RiverHawks home with a win after hitting a grand slam to put them up 10-6 in the top of the 11
th.
HPU went three up, three down to end game 1 of this four-game series.
Up Next: High Point will play a double header tomorrow for games two and three. The first game is slotted for a 12 p.m. first pitch. The second game will start approximately 40 minutes after the first game ends.
#GoHPU
