HIGH POINT, N.C. – Konni Durschlag smashed two homers in tonight's game as the High Point University baseball team clinched the series with a, 12-5, victory over New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Site: Williard Stadium
Score: High Point 12, NJIT 5
Records: High Point (3-0), NJIT (0-3)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "It's always good to get a win in nasty elements like tonight. I felt our guys handled that really well. We now know we have the ability to fight through it and get a win. I thought Cord (Butler) did a really good job of settling in and minimizing the damage and gave us an awesome five innings. The rest of the guy's kind of got their feet wet, those guys coming out of the pen. I think that is really good for them as well."
On a rainy Saturday night at Williard Stadium,
Cord Butler got the nod for game three of the opening weekend series with NJIT. Butler earned the win as he completed a line of five innings, three hits, two runs, and struck out seven batters.
Bryan Garrett,
Landon Castor, and
Brent Herrmann rounded out the bullpen for the Panthers in tonight's victory.
High Point's leadoff hitter, Durschlag, continued to stay hot at the plate as he went 3-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI's. He led the game off with a blast over the center field wall to ignite the Panthers six run bottom of the first after trailing 1-0. With bases loaded,
Jake McCarter singled to left field to score
James Murphy that kept the train moving. Two walks, followed by two hit batters brought in four runners to cap off an eventful first inning.
The lead for the Panthers grew in the second inning after
Jackson Melton reached on a fielder's choice that scored two runs. Followed by a
Christian Smith RBI ground out that scored
Miggy Echazarreta to bring the ninth run home.
The Highlanders took two runs back from HPU in the fifth and the sixth innings off a SAC fly to center and then an RBI single. The Panthers third basemen,
Brayden Simpson woke his bat up in the bottom of the sixth after he smoked a solo shot over the right center wall to push the lead to, 11-3.
Smith grabbed another RBI in the seventh as he grounded out to second scoring Echazarreta again before Durschlag poked his second long ball of the night to make it a 12-3 game.
The fight was not over yet for NJIT as they rallied and scored a run in the eighth off a solo shot from Ty Sallie. With bases loaded in the top of the ninth, a hit by pitch scored the fifth run for the Highlanders as that was all they managed to work before Herrmann recorded the final out to close out the ballgame.
Up Next: High Point will play its final game of the series tomorrow at Williard Stadium as first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
#GoHPU
