Three Run 8th Lifts High Point Over Radford

HIGH POINT, N.C. - High Point pushed three runs across in the bottom of the 8th inning to break a 3-3 tie and hold off Radford, 6-5, Sunday afternoon at Erath Field. (Box Score)

The Panthers improve to 17-14 (4-2 in the Big South) with the win, and took the weekend series with the Highlanders, 2-1.

HPU starter Riley Gostisha worked out of a jam in the top of the 6th the best way he could: by inducing a triple play. With the score tied 1-1, the Highlanders (11-16, 2-4) loaded the bases with no outs before Radford's Matt Mantione lined a ball to center field. HPU's John Cavanaugh caught it on the fly, fired the ball to Michael Lowman at second base to double off RU's Daryl Douglass, and when Radford's Nat Hodges tried to score from third on the throw, he was nailed at the plate when Jayson Hoffman took a perfect throw from Lowman and applied the tag.

The Panthers used the momentum to plate a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning on a Lowman sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Ryan Thiede for a 3-1 advantage.

Radford tied things up in the 7th on a Jerry Fulton solo home run and a single by Alan Ashworth which scored Shaun House.

But the Panthers took the lead for good in a three-run 8th inning which featured a two-run single by Thiede (scoring Chris Vinar and Colin Cronin) and an RBI base hit by Ken Keesee (scoring Cavanaugh). The rally made a winner out of HPU's David White (2-4) in relief of Riley Gostisha.

Chris Chandler surrendered a two-run pinch-hit homer in the 9th to RU's Kellen Wohlford, but eventually escaped with his sixth save of the season.