CHARLESTON – High Point defeated Charleston Southern by a 12-10 final score on Sunday to close out the opening weekend of the conference schedule. The game went for 11 innings with the teams continually trading blows the entire time.
 
The Buccaneers' Sam Massey had the start today and worked through a jam in the top of first to keep the Panthers off the board as they got a pair of runners on.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, Charleston Southern had their first two batters reach off singles, and after a flyout, Chandler Tuupo was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
 
High Point was able to get the score level in the top of the third as they had a two RBI triple by Kale Chatham to score early. After that, Eric Grintz had a sacrifice fly to deep center to bring Chatham home.
 
In the fourth, the Panthers' Brayden Simpson got a leadoff single and eventually were able to do more damage as they put up another three-spot to take the lead. Their next two batters were retired but they eventually loaded the bases to score the first and an error on a popup brought two more in, and nearly a third, but the batter got caught in a run down before the other runner reached home.
 
The Buccaneers scored one in their half of the inning to cut into the deficit. Conway was the one to bring home the runner off a single slashed to left field. High Point then put up another three spot in the fifth inning for back-to-back innings and moved their lead up to 9-4.
 
In the fifth, Charleston Southern scored four runs to cut their deficit in a major way as they trailed 9-8 at the end of it. The frame was highlighted by JJ Rivers sending a two-run homer over to right field wall. HPU then tacked on another run in the top half of the sixth on a home run of their own.
 
The teams then went on to trade scoreless innings, but in the 8^th, with one out, the Bucs started to put base runners on. Rivera got a walk and got moved to third on the ensuing Conway single with him advancing to second on the throwback to the infield. Lucas Pringle provided a hit to right field to score both runners and level it at 10 apiece.
 
The game then went into extra innings, but the Panthers were able to get the victory getting the go ahead runs in the top of the 11^th. The Buccaneers were able to load the bases with two outs, but a nice fielding play by the Panthers' shortstop, flipping it to second to get the force out, ended the game.
 
Massey threw 2.1 innings in it and allowed three runs in the game. Nick Timpanelli was the next up and allowed one earned run going for 1.1 frames. Tyler Henshaw faced a pair of batters and recorded an out in the game. Zac Robinson was the fourth used by the Bucs and he went the longest, going for 3.0 and allowing four runs. Lee Watson started the 8^th inning, striking out the lone batter he faced. Dylan Matsouka was next out for the Bucs and recorded 3.1 frames of work collecting four strikeouts during his outing.
 
At the plate, Conway led the team with four hits, contributing to the team's total of 14. Gavin Bogdanchik, Lucas Pringle, Tuupo and Dakota Miller all had two hits in the game with Alex Urlaub and Rivera having one each.
 
Charleston Southern has their next game be a midweek at #21 Campbell on Tuesday at Jim Perry Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. with the game available live on FloSports.