HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team has won its fourth straight series and fifth game in a row as they beat Longwood on Saturday afternoon, 4-1.
Site: Williard Stadium
Score: High Point 4, Longwood 1
Records: High Point (19-16, 8-3), Longwood (15-20, 3-7)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "Our pitchers were the story in this game. I feel like Wozniak did a great job of grinding through his outing without his A+ stuff. Grintz and Polk came in and slammed the door for us. We had some timidly situational at bats that got us enough runs for the victory. Credit the Longwood pitchers, they didn't give us anything free and we had to scratch and claw for everything. Tomorrow will be very important as I am sure we will get their best effort and every single game in our league will matter in the end."
Brett Wozniak, the southpaw from California got the start on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Wozniak shoved six innings, allowing just one run, on six hits. He earned his fifth win of the year in his ninth appearance.
The Panthers got on the board early in the second inning.
Adam Stuart led off with a single and
Charlie Klingler followed with another single advancing Stuart to second.
Eric Grintz reached on a fielder's choice resulting in Klingler getting out at second and Stuart advancing to third.
Brayden Simpson then drove a strike to left field scoring Stuart from third for the first run of the game.
Frank Kelly took the bat in the second and drove the first pitch he saw into the glove of the center fielder.
Eric Grintz tagged up from third and scored. The Panthers held an early 2-0 lead.
Cael Chatham with two strikes in the third inning took a healthy uppercut hack at one that was blasted out to right field for his team leading eighth home run.
The Lancers crawled back to within two runs in the top of the fourth as a runner scored off a fielder's choice resulting in an out at first base. The run scored on a throwing error from Stuart.
Kelly was tabbed with another RBI in the sixth inning after another SAC fly but this time to right field. Simpson tagged and scored the fourth HPU run.
Adam Grintz came out of the bullpen to pitch the seventh as he kept Longwood off the board with 15 pitches.
Howell Polk closed out the final two innings for HPU as he earned his first save of the year.
Simpson, Klingler, and Stuart all recorded two hits in today's victory.
UP Next: High Point will look for the sweep as game three against Longwood is tomorrow at 1 p.m.
#GoHPU
