HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell to the University of Toledo, 5-3, on Monday afternoon for its first loss of the season.
Site: Williard Stadium
Score: High Point 3, Toledo 5
Records: High Point (7-1), Toledo (2-5)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "Obviously a disappointing end. I felt our guys had a good fight. They had good energy from start to finish. It was a baseball game; we had a lot of opportunities. I feel like we left a lot of guys on base, it's more than that because we had three innings that ended with double plays. I was a little disappointed with our bats late in the game.
Mac Kimel did an awesome job in the middle of the game to steady it and give us a shot. Toledo is a good club and we had a chance at the very end with the go-ahead and winning run at the plate in the form of a guy who can run a ball out of the yard. Our fight was there, but it was just a baseball game. It's the way it works sometimes. You're not going to win every one of them. I certainly expect us to recover and come back tomorrow against Queens."
Cord Butler got the start for High Point in game three of the series with Toledo. Butler got hit around a bit but gave HPU 3.2 innings of work.
Mac Kimel made his season debut on the mound for the Panthers as he relieved Butler and shoved 3.1 solid innings. Kimel was able to slow down the Rockets offense by striking out four batters and not surrendering a hit or a run.
The Rockets jumped out to an early lead as they brought two runners across the plate in the top of the second. High Point answered in the bottom half of the frame as they scored to cut the deficit in half off a wild pitch scoring
Three Hillier from third.
A solo home run to right field for Toledo brought them back to up two runs in the top of the third, just before
James Murphy poked a missile over the left field fence for his first in the Purple and White.
A double down the left field line scored the fourth run for Toledo in the top of the fourth. The Panthers kept chipping away at the Rockets lead when
Brayden Simpson singled up the middle forcing a throwing error to allow
Konni Durschlag to score another run to cut the lead to one.
A scoreless two frames after the Simpson RBI, Toledo took a 5-3 lead when Brayden White sent a solo home run over the left field wall. High Point had a late chance in the bottom of the ninth to plate the go-ahead and winning run but came up just short.
The Panthers suffered its first loss since opening day to cap a seven-game win streak. High Point has now won its first two series of the year after taking two of three from the Rockets.
Up Next: High Point will host Queens University of Charlotte tomorrow afternoon at Williard Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
#GoHPU
