University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
High Point
Late Push Falls Short for Bulldogs on Saturday Night
05.09.2015 | Baseball
HIGH POINT, N.C. – A four-run eighth inning was not enough as the UNC Asheville baseball team was unable to complete a comeback attempt on Saturday night, falling 9-6 at High Point.
The Bulldog loss, coupled with a Longwood victory earlier on Saturday, officially eliminates Asheville from a spot in the Big South Conference Tournament later this month.
The series concludes on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m., with live stats available through this link and live video on the Big South Network via this link.
On Saturday night, Asheville (21-29, 5-15 Big South Conference) trailed by six runs before being faced with a rain delay in the middle of the eighth inning that put a charge into the Bulldogs. With one run already driven in before the delay, the visitors added to the inning's scoring with three consecutive RBI singles to pull to within three runs.
With one Bulldog runner on and one out, High Point (24-23,11-9 BSC) slammed the door on the inning with a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play to end the Asheville threat.
Asheville then went down in order in the ninth to finish the game off.
Offensively, Hunter Bryant finished 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI and a run scored, tallying a double and a home run. His fourth inning home run was his 12th of the season, the most an Asheville hitter has had since Reed Kreiser's 12 homers in the 2008 season.
Derek Smith was the only other Bulldog with multiple hits, finishing the night 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Asheville starter Jordan Fulbright allowed four runs on six hits in just 3 1/3 innings, falling to 5-2 on the year with the loss.
After leaving a runner stranded in each of the first two innings, Bryant's solo homer in the fourth inning momentarily brought the Bulldogs to within one run before High Point added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to extend their advantage.
The visitors cut into the lead in the top of the sixth, using Bryant's RBI double down the left field line to bring in Tommy Houmard and pull the deficit to 4-2. The Panthers responded with a five-run bottom of the sixth, using four singles to push their lead up to seven.
Asheville left a pair of runners on to end the seventh inning, and saw Kyle Carruthers' pinch hit double bring in the first run of the eighth before the rain delay. After the half-hour wait, the Bulldogs continued to cut into the deficit with three-straight RBI singles from Smith, Erik Connolly and Pete Guy to pull the score to 9-6.
With Guy at first base and Connolly on second with one out, High Point got out of the jam with the double play, striking out Joe Tietjen and erasing Connolly trying to steal third base.
The Bulldogs and Panthers wrap up their weekend series Sunday afternoon with a 1 p.m. first pitch.
