SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell short to USC Upstate, 9-7, in game one of the series on Friday afternoon.
Site: Harley Park
Score: High Point 7, USC Upstate 9
Records: High Point (10-8, 0-1), USC Upstate (8-10, 1-0)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "We just didn't do enough good things to warrant getting a win against a good opponent on the road. That's a disappointing way to kick off conference play but we get to come back tomorrow with a chance to even it out. A couple positives were that we were able to get the tying run to the plate in the 9th after trailing most of the game. And we were able to keep within range with 3 inning ending double plays or else it could have gotten away from us. We simply allowed far too many free bases and needed to be perfect at the plate in games like that, which we weren't today."
Willie Ponce wasted no time, swinging at the first pitch of the game and sending it over the right-field fence. Three batters later,
Lane Allen launched a home run to left field to give High Point an early 2-0 lead after the first inning.
USC Upstate tied the game in the bottom of the second with a two-run home run.
With two runners on and two outs in the third inning,
Jake McCarter singled to left field to score Ponce and give the Panthers a 3-2 lead. The Spartans quickly responded in the bottom of the third, scoring four runs on five hits to take a 6-3 lead after three innings.
Seojun Oh added a run for High Point in the top of the fifth, driving a ball to left-center to score
Jack Clark and cut the deficit to 6-4. Upstate answered again in the bottom half of the inning with a run of its own, then added another in the sixth to extend the lead to 8-4.
USC Upstate pushed its lead to 9-4 in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI double before the Panthers made a late push. Allen blasted his second home run of the night, a three-run shot, to bring High Point within two at 9-7.
The comeback attempt ended there as the Panthers dropped game one of the series, 9-7.
Allen led the offense with two home runs and four RBI, while Oh and Clark each recorded two hits on the day.
Up Next: High Point will return to Harley Park for game two tomorrow, March 14 at 2:00 pm.
#GoHPU
