HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell to the Radford Highlanders 7-6 in game one on Friday night.
Site: Williard Stadium
Score: High Point 6, Radford 7
Records: High Point (22-11, 7-3), Radford (16-14, 5-5)
Head Coach Joey Hammond: "We didn't do enough things to win the game and that is frustrating. We had opportunities, but we can't give free bases away to this team. We had opportunities at the very end too with the right guys up, and I'll take my chances with those guys all the time and I know they're going to be hard on themselves, but that wasn't when it was decided. It was decided with a lot of throwaway at-bats early in the game and they didn't give a lot of free things. It was a baseball game, not a lot of egregious things, but you know it's going to be difficult when they get 11 hits, and we have five free bases. It's going to be hard to limit, and that is how they score seven runs. We got to do a better job, and it starts tomorrow."
The Highlanders struck first in the top of the third with a two-run single up the middle, then added another run on a base hit through the left side to take a 3-0 lead.
HPU answered in the bottom of the third, scoring twice on a
Lane Allen sacrifice fly to right field and an RBI double by
Seojun Oh to cut the deficit to 3-2.
The Panthers took a 5-4 lead in the fourth inning.
Jace Kohler scored on an infield groundout,
Justin Ruiz came home on a wild pitch, and
Jack Clark added a sacrifice fly to center to score
Willie Ponce.
Radford tied the game at 5-5 in the fifth on a sacrifice fly, then regained control in the eighth with a two-RBI double to go ahead 7-5.
Oh pulled HPU within one in the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run over the right-field wall, making it 7-6.
High Point loaded the bases in the ninth with the tying run on third and the winning run on second but came up short, falling 7-6 in Friday night's series opener.
Up Next: High Point returns for game two of the series tomorrow with a 4:00 p.m. first pitch.
#GoHPU
