PC crushes HPU on diamond

Greer Smith, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·2 min read

May 15—HIGH POINT — Giving up a home run on the second pitch of the game was just the beginning of a bad outing for High Point University starter Greg Lyttle and the Panthers on Friday.

Lyttle surrendered nine runs in four innings before HPU scored and Presbyterian rolled to an 11-4 win Friday in the opener of a Big South three-game series at Vert Stadium.

Peyton Carr blasted a home run to right in the fourth for the Panthers, who also scratched across two runs in the seventh and one in the ninth. But, it wasn't nearly enough to overcome the Blue Hose feasting on Lyttle's pitching and HPU's miscues in the field.

Presbyterian improves to 15-20 and 14-15 in the Big South. High Point drops to 14-26 and 12-20 as it hopes to qualify for the league tournament continue to dwindle.

Lyttle gave up just seven hits. Zacchaeus Rasberry launched the first over the left-field wall to start the game, and Eric Toth belted a three-run homer to the same area in the third, after Rasberry and Brody Fahr singled. Kyle Decker later drove in Jeremiah Boyd, who reached on an error.

In the fourth, the Blue Hose loaded the bases on a hit batter, single and walk. Lyttle hit another batter to force in one run. A sacrifice fly plated another. A throw into centerfield on a stolen base attempt allowed another run to cross. The runner who stole second wound up at third and scored on a wild pitch, making it 9-0.

Six of the runs given up by Lyttle were earned as he took the loss, striking out two and walking one.

HPU outhit the Blue Hose 10-9.The Panthers fashioned three hits in the first but Joe Johnson was doubled up at second on a line drive, and Peyton Carr was thrown out at home on a failed double steal.

Carr belted his homer leading off the fourth against Presbyterian starter Eric Miles, who was pulled after giving up two more hits without recording an out in that inning. He was replaced by Brandon Williams, who got the win and was lifted after giving up two runs in the seventh on Jackson Melton's RBI single and Johnson's sacrifice fly.

Brady Pearre scored the first run in the seventh and also scored in the ninth, getting on when he was hit by a pitch and advancing on a wild pitch and an error.

Melton and Carr each went 2 for 4 and no one else for the Panthers had multiple hits.

The teams finish the series with a doubleheader today beginning at 2 p.m.