HIGH POINT, N.C. - UNCG baseball proved it could win in multiple ways this Saturday. After taking down No. 11 NC State in a 16-13 shootout on Tuesday, the Spartans worked to a hard fought 4-2 victory in their first of three games scheduled against High Point this weekend.
Corey Rosier tied a program record with a pair of triples in the Saturday win, while starter
Austin Koehn registered his second straight quality start, and struck out a career-high eight batters. All of this weekend's matchups with the Panthers are being played in Truist Point Stadium, home of Atlantic League club, the High Point Rockers.
Both teams got their offense going in the first inning, and with UNCG playing the visitor on Saturday they were the first to strike. Rosier registered his second triple as a Spartan on the very first pitch of the day, driving a ball into right center. The center fielder came home on the following at bat, with
Greg Hardison registering an RBI single through the right side. The Spartans' initial lead wouldn't last long however, with the Panthers leveling the affair in the bottom half of the opening inning.
High Point grabbed its second run of the night in the second to take its only lead of the night, before starting righty
Austin Koehn settled in to keep the Panthers scoreless for his following four frames of work. Koehn allowed just a single hit and one walk from the third through the sixth, collecting six of his last 12 outs on the night with a strikeout. Finishing with just two runs against over 6.0 innings of work, Koehn has recorded a quality start in both of his appearances this season, and his eight strikeouts on Saturday were not only a career-high, but the most HPU has had against a single pitcher all year.
Koehn earned the winning decision for his effort, as the Spartan offense grabbed a lead in the third that it would maintain for the remainder of the contest. Rosier tallied his second triple of the afternoon in that inning, but this time it came with teammate
Daniel Cerda on base, who tied the game coming around from first. Hardison doubled his day's RBI total with a sac fly out to left and UNCG reclaimed a one-run lead, 3-2.
Phillip Sanderson and
Jack Voigt combined for 1.2 innings of shutout relief behind Koehn, with the latter striking out a pair. Their effort on the mound left UNCG in a position to add some insurance runs, which second baseman
Hogan Windish did in the visiting half of the eighth. The redshirt sophomore took a 1-0 pitch out to right field for his second homer of the season, a no-doubter that doubled the Spartans' lead.
Kross Robinson again came on for the save, recording the final four outs to grab his third of the season. The Spartans are on a four-game win streak thanks to their game one victory over HPU, with their lone loss of the season coming on opening day.
>> Rosier is just the eighth Spartan in history to collect two triples in a single game, and the first to do so since Adam Moritz in 2018. The outfielder is slugging a team-high .739 to start the year, and leading the Spartans with seven RBI
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Josh Madole collected a knock and a walk on Saturday, he's reached safely in all five of UNCG's games this year.
Greg Hardison is on five-game hit streak to start the season, and a six-game hitting streak going back to last season
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Phillip Sanderson and
Kross Robinson are still yet to surrender a run this year, they have WHIPs of .90 and .30 respectively, tossing 3.1 innings apiece
#letsgoG
