HPU Baseball Drops 4-0 Decision To No. 1 Radford

• High Point suffered its first loss in the 2015 Big South Baseball Championship with a 4-0 loss to top-seeded Radford on Wednesday.
• Senior John McGillicuddy pitched 7-1/3 innings and struck out nine in the loss.
• The Panthers will face No. 8-seed Longwood in an elimination game on Thursday, May 21, in Boiling Springs, N.C.

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team fell to top-seeded Radford by a score of 4-0 in the second round of the Big South Baseball Championship on Wednesday night in Boiling Springs, N.C. Senior John McGillicuddy pitched into the eighth inning for HPU.

“Michael Boyle was just better than us tonight,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “You have to tip your hat to that guy. That being said, we are still alive and in position to do what we wanted to do here. We just need to have the toughness and the mentality to get it done.”

McGillicuddy pitched 7-1/3 innings and allowed four earned runs to take the loss for the Panthers. The senior gave up seven hits and one walk while striking out nine Highlander batters, one shy of his career high.

Michael Boyle pitched eight shutout innings for Radford to pick up his 10th win of the season. Boyle allowed just one HPU runner to reach second in his eight innings of work, giving up just three hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Ryan Meisinger pitched a scoreless ninth with three strikeouts to finish the shutout.

High Point drops to 28-25 overall on the season with the loss to Radford, HPU’s first against the Highlanders in the Big South Tournament. RU improves to 41-14 overall with the win.

Radford scored twice in the third and once in the fourth to take an early 3-0 lead over High Point. The Highlanders got an RBI double by Chris Coia and an RBI single by Josh Reavis in the third and an RBI single by Keen in the fourth.

The Highlanders added a run in the eighth inning on a home run by Shane Johnsonbaugh to make the final score 4-0.

Freshman Carson Jackson was the only HPU player to reach base more than once on the night, going 2-4 at the plate for the Panthers. Sophomores Chris Clare and Josh Greene recorded the only other hits on the night.

High Point drops into the loser’s bracket and will take on No. 8 seed Longwood in an elimination game on Thursday, May 21, in Boiling Springs, N.C. The game will begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of the elimination game between No. 3 Winthrop and No. 6 Campbell, which begins at 3 p.m.