University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
25-26, 11-15
High Point
20-33, 12-13
Bulldogs Overcome Early Deficit to Down High Point, 7-6, in 10 Innings
05.19.2023 | Baseball
All nine members of Asheville's starting lineup picked up at least one hit in Friday's win. A trio of Bulldogs picked up two hits in Dylan Bacot, Michael Groves, and Tylan Reece. Both of Bacot's hits went for extra bases with a double and a home run. The home run by Bacot now brings his season RBI total to 59, which is tied for the most in a single season in program history with Brian Shehan (1989). Cameron Johnson also homered in Friday's win.
Asheville used three pitchers on the day. Ryan Douglas started the game and pitched 1.2 innings. The tandem of Justin Honeycutt (5.1 innings) and Dawson Salter (3 innings) were outstanding out of the Bulldog bullpen as they combined for 8.1 shutout innings to help give the Bulldogs a chance to make their eventual comeback.
Like in Thursday's series opener, High Point would jump out to an early lead on Asheville. A pair of runs in the bottom of first put the Bulldogs in an early hole. A home run by Johnson and a sacrifice fly by Tony Castonguay quickly tied the score at 2-2 in the top of the second. However, the Panthers answered immediately with a four-run second of their own to regain the lead, 6-2.
Asheville got one of those runs back in the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Groves to make it 6-3 High Point. Helped by Honeycutt and Salter keeping the Panther offense in check, Asheville completed the comeback in the ninth.
Groves led the inning off with a walk. A pair of fly outs, however, quickly brought the Bulldogs down to their final out. High Point's starter Brett Wozniak was still pitching in the ninth inning at this point and he was one out away from a rare complete game. Back-to-back singles from Castonguay and Reece brought Groves around to score to make the score 6-4. Drew Bristow worked a walk and that brought the end of the day for Wozniak with the bases loaded with two outs.
With the game in the balance, Kohl Abrams came through with a clutch two-run single to score both Castonguay and Reece to complete Asheville's comeback and tie the score at 6-6. After High Point got out of that jam, Salter tossed his second of his eventual three scoreless frames to force the game into extra innings.
Leading off the top of the 10th inning, Bacot deposited a 2-2 offering over the left field wall to give Asheville its first lead of the night, 7-6.
WHAT. A. COMEBACK. 😱
— Big South Conference (@BigSouthSports) May 20, 2023
Down by as many as four, and trailing by two while down to their last strike, @UNCAvlBaseball comes back to stun HPU!
Dylan Bacot is the hero with a HR in the 🔟th! pic.twitter.com/NikYq99ke8
In the bottom of the 10th, Salter worked around a two-out single to close out the game. Salter, who picked up the win, pitched a season-high three innings with zero runs allowed to give Asheville the 7-6 victory.
The Bulldogs will close out the 2023 season on Saturday with their third and final game against the Panthers. First pitch for that matchup is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Salter, Dawson (1-0)
L: GARCIA, Sam (1-8)
Batting:
2B: Bacot, Dylan 1
HR: Bacot, Dylan 1 ; Johnson, Cameron 1
RBI: Abrams, Kohl 2 ; Bacot, Dylan 1 ; Groves, Michael 1 ; Johnson, Cameron 1 ; Castonguay, Tony 1 ; Reece, Tylan 1
SF: Castonguay, Tony 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Lanowitz, Corbin 1 ; Bacot, Dylan 1 ; Groves, Michael 1 ; Johnson, Cameron 1 ; Kaufman, Ty 1 ; Castonguay, Tony 1 ; Reece, Tylan 1
SB: Kaufman, Ty 1
Batting:
2B: CHATHAM, Cael 1 ; SINGSANK, Cole 1
RBI: AHALT, Brett 1 ; CHATHAM, Cael 1 ; STUART, Adam 1 ; ECHAZARRETA, Miggy 1
SH: CHATHAM, Cael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: AHALT, Brett 2 ; FIELDS, Javon 1 ; STUART, Adam 1 ; SINGSANK, Cole 1 ; DESLAURIERS, Josh 1
SB: AHALT, Brett 1 ; FIELDS, Javon 1 ; SUTTON, Blake 1 ; DESLAURIERS, Josh 1
HBP: FIELDS, Javon 1 ; SUTTON, Blake 1 ; SINGSANK, Cole 1
