HIGH POINT, NC Following a two hour and three minute rain delay, the UNC Greensboro baseball squad held off the High Point Panthers to take a close 6-5 victory at the Coy O. Willard, Sr. Stadium in High Point, NC. The victory was UNCG's fourth straight and their first road win of the season.
After nabbing three runs in their first at-bat, UNCG warded off a pressing Panther squad to take the one-run victory. HPU constantly chewed away at the Spartan lead, but each time High Point came within one, the blue and gold were able to tack on just enough to keep them at bay.
With the late start, Wednesday's game officiall ended Thursday at 12:04am.
UNCG will head into the weekend's conference opener with Appalachian State on a four-game win streak and a record of 12-5. With the loss, High Point falls to 4-14.
The first pitch of the game left the hands of High Point's Zach Scott at 9:03pm and directly found the body of UNCG's leadoff batter, second baseman Tim Carrier. Shortstop Matt Gaski drove Scott's second pitch through the left side; his third toss struck the designated hitter Greg Feltes to load the bases for the Spartans.
HPU's first strike of the game came against the first baseman Ricky Orton, but it wasn't enough as Orton took a walk to bring in Carrier for the first run of the game. UNCG grabbed a three-run lead when catcher Adam Deleo singled up the middle to plate Gaski and Feltes.
RBI singles by the Panthers in the bottom of the first and second inning to made it a one-run game, but the Spartans came back with two of their own in the top of the third to take back the two-run lead. A double to left field by right fielder Sean Snell drove in Feltes who was sitting on second. In the next at-bat, Deleo slapped a single up the middle to complete Snell's course to home plate.
After four consecutive three up, three down innings, the HPU lineup brought in two runs to cut the lead down to one once again. A UNCG fielding error allowed Kyle Mahoney to come in from third and a fielder's choice hit to the shortstop by Billy Alvino brought in the Panther's fourth run of the game.
Errors on the mound allowed both teams to tally single runs in the sixth inning. UNCG's came by way of a balk, while HPU scored off a wild pitch.
With neither team able to tally a run in the final three innings, UNCG came away with the 6-5 victory at 12:04am.
UNCG's Drew Gehringer was 2-for-3 with one run. Greg Feltes went 2-for-4 with two runs, a double, and a triple. High Point's Chris Norwood and Max Fulginti both hit 1-for-3.
Freshman Alex Shelton (2-1) tabbed his second win of the season. Rob Gilliam (1-3) earned his first save of the season after coming in for relief in the eighth inning. HPU's Zach Scott (1-4) took his fourth loss of the season after giving UNCG the early-game lead.
The Spartans begin conference action this coming weekend when they head to the mountains for a Friday-Saturday-Sunday series with Appalachian State. The Spartans and the Mountaineers kickoff the weekend with a 5pm start time on Friday followed by 3pm start on Saturday and 1pm start on Sunday.
For news about UNCG baseball, complete season schedule, and any other information regarding Spartan athletics log onto www.UNCGSpartans.com.
# # UNCG # #
UNC Greensboro 6, High Point 5 (March 19, 2008 at High Point, NC)
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UNC Greensboro...... 302 001 000 - 6 9 1 (12-5)
High Point ............... 110 021 000 - 5 4 1 (4-14)
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Pitchers: UNC Greensboro Greg Smith; Alex Shelton(5); James White(6); Matt Bjorkstrom(7); Rob Gilliam(8)
High Point Zach Scott; Jamie Serber(1); Mike Caldwell(4); Chlebnikow(7); Berg(7); Bubba O'Donnell(9)
Win- Alex Shelton (2-1)
Loss- Zach Scott (0-4)
Save- Rob Gilliam (1)