Elon baseball took the diamond under the lights Tuesday night looking to defeat Triad rival High Point University. The Phoenix struggled offensively throughout the game, falling short to the Panthers 5-3.
“I thought we were a little lifeless,” said head coach Mike Kennedy. “We didn’t have a lot of energy, and I’m not sure why that happened.”
The Panthers out hit the Phoenix, collecting 12 to Elon’s four.
“I thought some guys tried to do too much versus getting a good pitch and putting a good swing on it,” Kennedy said. “I thought we got real big…I thought our swings got long… I thought our mentality was probably more 'it’s a midweek game…we’re going to score a bunch of runs,' and we got greedy.”
The defense also struggled a bit for the Phoenix, allowing the leadoff Panther to reach base in eight of the nine innings. However, each of High Point's five runs came in separate innings.
“Should have gotten the ball down a little bit more,” said junior starting pitcher Sean Byrnes. “They got some ground ball hits that luckily didn’t matter too much, but it felt pretty good out there. It’s always great getting ground balls knowing that there’s a great defense right there. It allows me to just throw pitches and let the defense work.”
With the loss, Elon drops below the 500 mark to 16-17. They will face another local competitor tomorrow night as they take on the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest University. The game against Wake Forest last week was called off because of thunderstorms.
“They’re a good ballclub…very offensive,” Kennedy said. “We want to show up…play hard, and we want to play with a little more energy than we had today.”
“Compete a little bit better than we did tonight,” Byrnes added. “They’re one of the best teams…top 15
The Phoenix will go for that win tomorrow night at 6 p.m. in Latham Park.