#3 UNC Asheville Upends #4 High Point, Avoids Elimination
The UNC Asheville baseball team posted a 1-1 record on the opening day of the 2022 Ingles Big South Baseball Championship on Wednesday at Truist Point in High Point, N.C. Asheville dropped game one of the day to Gardner-Webb, 4-0, before rebounding to take down High Point in the nightcap, 6-3.
Asheville bounced back in its second game of the day vs. High Point. The trio of Edwards, Salter, and Blake Little combined to allow zero earned runs against the Panthers to help Asheville advance to Thursday with a 6-3 win.
The second game of the day began as a pitchers’ duel. Edwards of Asheville and Chandler Shepard of High Point exchanged zeroes until the bottom of the fourth. Burnett got things started with a walk, Dylan Bacot and Cameron Johnson followed with singles to load the bases for Asheville. Groves grounded into a double play, but Burnett was able to score to give the Bulldogs the first lead of the game, 1-0.
An RBI single by Kaufman in the bottom of the fifth extended the Asheville lead to 2-0. In the highest-scoring inning of the contest, High Point scored three times in the sixth thanks to a pair of costly Bulldog errors to gain the 3-2 lead. However, Asheville answered in the bottom half. Burnett singled and advanced to second on a fielding error by HPU. Groves singled, and Heintz walked before Reece delivered perhaps the biggest hit of the game with a two-run triple to put Asheville back on top, 5-3.
A sacrifice fly by Freeberger plated Kaufman in the seventh to make it 6-3 Bulldogs. Little, who entered the game in the seventh, took the game the rest of the way for Asheville. Little was stellar, tossing three shutout innings with one walk and two strikeouts to tally a rare three-inning save.
Asheville will wait to see who their next opponent will be. The Bulldogs will play the lowest remaining seed left in the tournament tomorrow night at 7 p.m. from Truist Point. The three possible opponents for Asheville are USC Upstate, Charleston Southern, and Gardner-Webb.