• High Point dropped its regular season finale to Maryland by a score of 9-2 on Saturday.
• Junior Hunter Lee had three of HPU’s 12 hits and finished the day 3-4 with an RBI.
• The Panthers finished the regular season with a 29-21 overall record and are the No. 4 seed in the Big South Tournament with a 13-11 conference mark.
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team finished the 2017 regular season with a 9-2 loss to Maryland in the series finale on Saturday afternoon at Williard Stadium. The Panthers end the regular season with a 29-21 overall record and are the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Big South Tournament.
“Unfortunately we fell into a deep hole in the first third of the game today and we weren’t able to scrap back,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “That being said, we won the final two-thirds of the game and put 12 hits on the board. This was a great series win. We will carry this momentum into the conference tournament starting on Tuesday and make a run at that conference championship.”
Freshman Trevor Holloway allowed eight runs, seven earned, on eight hits and a walk while striking out four in his three innings of work for High Point. The loss drops him to 3-6 on the season.
Terrapin starter Taylor Bloom earned the win and improved to 6-2 on the year after allowing two earned runs on eight hits over six innings of work. Tayler Stiles pitched the final three innings for the save; recording six of his nine outs via strikeout.
Maryland got a run in the first, four in the second and three in the third to open an early 8-0 lead over the Panthers. Brandon Gum led off the game with a triple and scored on an RBI groundout in the first. In the second, the Terps got RBI hits from Madison Nickens, Justin Morris and Marty Costes. Kevin Smith drove in the first run in the third then scored on a triple by Mickens who came home on the play on a throwing error.
High Point got on the board in the fifth with a run on an RBI single by senior Zach Vandergrift then after Maryland answered with a run in the next half inning, the Panthers scored in the bottom of the frame on an RBI single by junior Hunter Lee.
Lee finished 3-4 with an RBI on the day while Vandergrift went 2-4 with an RBI. Nine different HPU players recorded at least one hit in the contest, including seven of the Panthers’ nine starters.
High Point enters the Big South Tournament at the No. 4 seed with a 13-11 mark in conference play. The Panthers will play No. 5 Radford in the final game of the day on Tuesday, May 23, at Lexington County Baseball Stadium in Lexington, S.C.