HPU baseball’s season ends with 18-13 loss to Longwood

• High Point was eliminated from the Big South Championship with an 18-13 loss to Longwood on Thursday in Lexington, S.C.
• Redshirt-junior Tim Mansfield had a career-high five hits and finished with four RBI and three runs scored.
• The Panthers finish the season with 32 wins, one shy of the program’s Div. I single-season record set in 2014.

LEXINGTON, S.C. – The High Point University baseball team saw its 2016 season come to a close with an 18-13 loss to No. 3 Longwood in the Big South tournament on Thursday afternoon in Lexington, S.C.

The Panthers end the season with a 32-24 overall record. The 32 wins by HPU is the program’s second-highest single-season total in the Div. I era (2000-present) behind only the 33 wins that High Point had in 2014.

“It’s always hard when a season ends but this game was an indicator of the toughness of our guys,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We kept fighting back, we just couldn’t catch them. This is a special group of guys and one of the finest teams I have coached. I will go to battle with them anytime. I am proud of our season and even though we came up short of our goal the future of High Point University baseball is bright.”

Hoffman took the loss and finished the season with a 5-5 record. The right-hander lasted just 1-1/3 innings and allowed seven earned runs on seven hits without a walk or a strikeout. Longwood scored three times in the first on RBI singles by Alex Lewis, Michael Osinski and Sammy Miller to go ahead, 3-0.

High Point pulled two runs back in the bottom of the first, scoring the first on an RBI groundout by junior Chris Clare and the second on an RBI single by sophomore Carson Jackson.

The Lancers opened up their lead in the second inning, scoring six times to go up 9-2. C.J. Roth opened the scoring in the frame on an RBI single. Lewis drove in one with an RBI double then scored on a two-run double by Osinski. Colton Konvicka tripled to score Osinski and came home for the final run on a sacrifice fly by Miller.

In the bottom of the second, High Point answered back with two runs to trim the deficit to five at 9-4. The Panthers got three-straight one-out singles by junior Luke Parker sophomore Spencer Brown and sophomore Austen Zente, loading the bases for redshirt-junior Tim Mansfield

An RBI double by redshirt-sophomore Zach Vandergrift in the third pulled High Point to within four at 9-5, but Longwood tacked on two runs in the fifth and another two in the sixth to go up 13-5. Roth and Bastaich both had RBI singles for the Lancers in the fifth and Carlos Garrido and Roth both had RBI singles in the sixth.

An RBI single by Jackson and an RBI double by Vandergrift scored two runs for the Panthers in the sixth and a third was scored when Lee came home on a wild pitch to pull HPU to within five at 13-8.

After Longwood matched High Point’s three runs with three of its own in the top of the seventh, the Panthers pushed five runs across in the bottom of the frame to pull to within three at 16-13. A triple by Mansfield scored the first two runs and the HPU left fielder scored himself on a sacrifice fly by Clare. Jackson and Lee then reached on a single and a double before scoring on Vandergrift’s RBI single.

The Panthers almost tied the game when Brown hit a long drive down the line in right with two on but the ball sailed just wide of the foul pole. Longwood came back with two runs in the top of the eighth on back-to-back doubles by Osinski and Konvicka to make the final score 18-13.

The 31 combined runs and 47 combined hits are both Big South Championship single-game records. Seven different HPU batters finished with multiple hits, led by Mansfield who had a career-high five hits with two doubles and a triple, four RBI and three runs scored. Jackson, Lee and Vandergrift all had three hits with Jackson finishing 3-6 with two RBI and two runs scored, Lee going 3-5 with a walk and three runs scored and Vandergrift finishing 3-6 with two doubles and four RBI.