SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell to USC Upstate 12-7 in game two of the series on Saturday afternoon.
Site: Harley Park
Score: High Point 7, USC Upstate 12
Records: High Point (10-9, 0-2), USC Upstate (10-10, 2-0)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "Another frustrating start to the game today and dug a hole too big to climb out of. We have to find a way to be more sharp in the early innings of the game and that's been disappointing. Credit to Upstate for taking advantage of each mistake we made and refused to give us anything free for two games now. Our guys have their backs against the wall with an important opportunity to salvage one game this weekend."
USC Upstate jumped out early, scoring three runs in the opening frame on a three-run home run to take the early lead. The Spartans added another run in the bottom of the second to extend the advantage to 4-0.
Upstate continued to build momentum in the third inning, plating three more runs to take a 7-0 lead after three frames.
High Point got on the board in the top of the fourth with solo home runs from
Landen Johnson and
Seojun Oh. The Spartans answered in the bottom half with a solo shot of their own to push the lead back to six.
Jack Clark responded in the fifth inning, blasting his first collegiate home run, a two-run shot, to pull HPU within four. Upstate countered in the sixth with a two-run homer to make it 10-4, before
Jace Kohler sent a solo shot off the scoreboard in left-center field for his first home run of his sophomore season.
In the top of the eighth, Oh launched his second home run of the afternoon, a two-run blast that cut the deficit to three and made it a 10-7 game.
Upstate added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth and closed out the ninth to secure the 12-7 win over HPU.
HPU hit five home runs in the contest, highlighted by a three-RBI performance from Oh and a three-hit outing from McCarter.
Up Next: High Point will return to Harley Park for game three tomorrow, March 15 at 1:00 pm.
#GoHPU
