Jul. 21—HIGH POINT — The High Point Hushpuppies became the first Old North State League team to notch its 20th win of the season on Tuesday.
With first place in the Western Division clinched, the Hushpuppies clipped the Reidsville Luckies 10-3 in the first game of a doubleheader at Truist Point.
“That’s 20, and it’s exciting because that’s three years in a row that we’ve done it,” Hushpuppies manager Brandon Nelson said. “It’s good to play at home because it seems we haven’t been here in a month.”
Reidsville led after scoring in the top of the first and second but the Hushpuppies dominated late in the seven-inning contest.
High Point improved to 20-7 and the second-place Luckies dropped to 11-11 heading into Tuesday’s second game that ended after the Enterprise went to press.
The Hushpuppies end the regular season today against the Luckies at Truist Point while Reidsville has another two games left.
High Point starting pitcher Max Little overcame a rocky start and retired 13 of the last 15 batters he faced. Little, who was the winner and worked six innings, set down his last 10.
Conrad Hansel ran the streak to 13 by tossing a perfect seventh.
“Max didn’t have his best stuff, but he grinded to get through,” Nelson said. “He gave up three and left the bases loaded when he got out of the second. So he was dealing with some traffic and pushed his way through it, put up zeros the rest of the way and Conrad shut them down in the seventh.
“You can’t ask for much better than that, especially when you put up 10 runs.”.
At the plate: Oliver Zohn went 3 for 4 with a run and an RBI; Nick Roets was 1 for 3 with a run and two RBIs; Isaiah Gibbs drove in a run and scored one; James Denten was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and an RBI; Hunter Steel was 2 for 2 with three runs scored and two RBIs.
“It’s good to see our bats come alive a little bit,” Nelson said. “We’ve been hit or miss the last week or so.”
With the score tied at 3, the Hushpuppies took the lead with three in fourth then added two in the fifth and two in the sixth.
Roets laced a bases-loaded double down the left field line that scored two runs and put the Hushpuppies ahead. Gibbs followed with a single that scored Roets.
“I got in front of it a little bit,” Roets said. “I got good wood on it and got the job done.”
In the fourth, Denten reached on an infield hit and escaped being doubled up on a popup to second when the throw to first went toward the Hushpuppies dugout, allowing Denten to go to second.
Steel then laced a run-scoring single and later scored when Jacob Mead’s grounder skipped past the shortstop on what was ruled an error.
In the sixth, Seth Polen scored when Derek Fay reached on an error, and a bases-loaded walk pushd across Denten.
The Luckies scored in the first on a pair of RBI doubles.
The Hushpuppies countered in the bottom of the inning when one run scored on a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch allowed the other.
Reidsville regained the lead in the top of the second on an RBI single, and Zohn laced a single to score Steel in the bottom of the inning.
Little allowed five hits, struck out five and walked two.
“It was rough at the beginning,” Little said. “I didn’t have a good feel for my pitches. As the game went on I had a better feel and got more confident. . . My fastball was going down the middle and was easy to hit and my changeup wasn’t effective, so they were sitting on the fastball. And my slider wasn’t breaking today. So it was the fastball and changeup and they jumped on them at the beginning of the game. But then I got a better feel for the fastball and changeup.”
Today’s game starts at 7 p.m.
gsmith@hpenews.com — 336-888-3519 — @HPEGreer