The High Point University club baseball team began a new winning streak at Williard Stadium on Saturday, defeating Elon in consecutive games of a doubleheader. High Point won by scores of 8-4 and 10-3 in the back-to-back seven-inning affairs.

Alex D'lario was a big bat for the Panthers, going 4-7 with an RBI and five runs scored across both games. Similarly effective was Ryan Donaldson, who collected three hits and had a team-leading four RBI in the doubleheader. Elon's offense was unable to keep up with High Point, but its scoring was led by Braden Iverson, who batted in four of the Phoenix's seven runs on only two hits.

"Overall, we got the wins and put up runs while our pitching staff and defense did a great job keeping Elon from crossing the plate," High Point head coach Todd Murphy said.

Brandon Brewer opened the scoring in Game 1 with an RBI single in the bottom of the first. Donaldson singled in the second inning to score two more runs for the Panthers. Hits by Luke O'Connor, D'ilario, Brewer, and a sacrifice fly from James Harris accounted for a five-run third inning for High Point, extending the lead to eight in just the third inning.

Starting pitcher Yiannis Fotopoulos earned the win with a dominating start that included seven strikeouts, but he ran into some trouble in the fifth and sixth innings. Timely hitting by Elon and some crucial fielding errors by the Panthers cost High Point four runs, two of which were earned; this prevented Fotopoulos from throwing a complete game. Graeme White came on in the seventh to shut down the 8-4 victory.

Game 2 was much more back-and-forth, with both teams scoring two runs each in the first inning. Elon jumped out to a short-lived lead in the third inning, but the Panthers came right back as a sacrifice bunt by Luke Moya and a sacrifice fly by O'Connor gave High Point the 4-3 lead.

The Panthers' offense then exploded with another five-run inning in the bottom of the fifth courtesy of doubles from both Donaldson and Nathan Neubauer, as well as a sacrifice fly from Christian Tsakalakis. 

CJ Rasher earned the win after taking over for Johnny Meers, who left the game with an injury. The lack of warm-up didn't slow Rasher, however, as he cruised through the middle innings, throwing three and two-thirds innings without giving up a run or even a hit. His showing facilitated the offensive takeover as the Panthers defeated the Phoenix 10-3.

"We had our ups and downs throughout the doubleheader, but overall, we played our game, executing when we needed to and walked out with two wins," said Neubauer, High Point's first baseman. "We'll look to do the same tomorrow for the sweep." 

High Point's club baseball team turns around to play again at home in Williard Stadium at 11 a.m. Sunday in the third game of its series against the Elon Phoenix.