HIGH POINT, N.C. - The High Point University baseball team defeated the Duke University Blue Devils 12-6 on Tuesday night.
Site: Williard Stadium
Score: High Point 12, Duke 6
Records: High Point (10-7), Duke (13-6, 1-2)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "I'm really proud of a lot of things. Mainly the response after a big series this past weekend. I think we answered it right in the first inning. I'm proud of Mateo [Wells] by minimizing Duke on the base path. Justin [Ruiz] throwing out a runner and getting a big out to put a zero there really helped. Can't say enough about that first inning. Just the fight, the battle, the plan, the approaches, the two-strike fight, and the hit after hit. We stacked nine quality at-bats, that's incredible. I don't know when the last time HPU had three, power-four wins in a five day period, I know it's the first time since I've been here. So proud of our guys. It' a great opportunity for us to kind of keep building. But this is how you want to be playing at this time of year."
High Point jumped on the board early with a six-run first inning. Jack Clark got the Panthers started by getting on base with an infield single, before Landen Johnson and Lane Allen reached base as well. Jake McCarter started the scoring with an RBI single to center, while Seojun Oh followed that with another single up the middle to load the bases. A double down the left field line by Jace Kohler scored two, and a Justin Ruiz single up the middle cleared the bases to take a 5-0 lead. After batting around the order, Willie Ponce singled to right field to score Ruiz to capitalize on a six run opening frame.
The Blue Devils answered with three runs in the third inning, but High Point responded again in the fourth. Clark and McCarter both drove in a run, before Oh singled to second base drawing a throwing error to score the third run to extend the lead to 9-3.
Duke added a run in the fifth with a RBI double, before HPU responded again with a run in the bottom of the frame on a Blue Devil balk that brought Frank Kelly home to make it a 10-4 game.
In the sixth, Duke tacked on its fifth run of the night on a RBI single. Oh and Kelly had answers with two RBI singles to extend the HPU lead to 12-5. Duke wasn't done yet when they made it a 12-6 game in the eighth on a solo home run, before being shut down in the top of the ninth to close the game.
The Panthers finished with 14 hits in the win. Kelly led the offense, going 3-for-3 with two RBI. Oh also added three hits and two RBIs, while Clark and McCarter finished with two hits.
Noah Zimmerman earned the win in relief, striking out three over two innings of work.
Up Next: High Point begins conference play in Spartanburg, S.C. with a weekend series at USC Upstate. Game one is Friday, March 13 at 3:00 p.m.
#GoHPU
