Temple University Athletics
High Point Rallies To Beat Temple, 5-4
2.27.09 | Baseball
Feb. 27, 2009
HIGH POINT, NC - High Point scored four runs in its final two at-bats, including two unearned runs in the ninth, to beat Temple, 5-4, in a come-from-behind victory on Friday night at Willard Stadium. The Owls held a comfortable 4-1 lead behind the pitching of sophomore Ben White into the eighth but a pair of errors, three walks and two hit batters led to the defeat.
"I thought we played well up until the eighth inning," head coach Rob Valli said. "Our bullpen got all of the right groundballs in all the right spots, we just didn't handle them correctly."
While senior Mark Ortega provided all of the offense for the Cherry and White with his first inning RBI double and his third inning three-run home run, White was cruising on the mound.
Through seven innings, White had allowed just three hits and one earned run, while retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced heading into the eighth. Trailing 4-1, a lead-off double by Alfie Wheeler and walk to Jeff Cowan put Panthers on first and second with no outs for three-batter Bill Manion.
The senior drove a double into the right-center field gap to plate two runs and cut the deficit to one. Valli turned to junior Matt Blackburn, who after a hit batter, managed to pick Manion off at second for the first out of the inning.
He walked the next batter but induced an inning-ending 6-4-3 double-play to escape trouble.
Temple was unable to add any insurance in the top of the ninth and sent junior closer Kyle Monahan to the mound. Murray White led off the inning with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, placing the tying run just 90 feet away.
With the infield in, pinch hitter Rob Gilles hit a hard ground ball past Temple 2B Carmen Del Mastro to even the score at 4-4. Monahan then hit and walked the next two batters to bring up Manion again.
Valli inserted sophomore southpaw Jordan Cannon, who got Manion to hit a chopper to shortstop. Temple (2-2) was unable to turn the double-play that would have sent the game into extra innings and High Point (3-2) celebrated its third victory of the young season.
Monahan (1-1) suffered the loss, despite not allowing an earned run in 0.1 innings. White was saddled with the no-decision in his longest collegiate outing. He surrendered three earned runs in seven innings, scattering five hits and striking out two.
"Ben pitched extremely well today and definitely gave us a chance to win," Valli said.
Temple did all of its damage offensively in the first three innings. Ortega's double down the third base line plated senior Sean Barksdale with two outs in the first to give TU a 1-0 lead.
HPU tied the score in the bottom half of the frame on a Kyle Mahoney RBI single, but Ortega answered again in the third. His first home run of the season, a line drive over the 370-foot mark in left center, gave the Owls a 4-1 lead.
Panther starter RJ Chlebnikow settled in from that point on, retiring 14 of the next 16 batters he faced. He pitched eight innings, giving up four earned runs and striking out five.
Zach Scott (1-0) picked up the win by pitching a scoreless ninth with a pair of strikeouts.
Barksdale and senior Jamie Abercrombie each had two hits for the Owls.
The series resumes on Saturday at noon.
NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 40 minutes due to rain that fell in the Piedmont Triad all day...Temple had won 36 straight games when leading after eight innings...Barksdale has hit safely in 19 of his last 20 games, dating back to last season...This was the first meeting between the schools and just the second time TU played a member of the Big South Conference.
