BOX SCORE HIGH POINT, N.C. – Radford starter Eddie Butler allowed two earned runs in a complete game effort, but High Point pitching struck out 17 batters in a series-opening 4-2 win over the Highlanders on Friday night.
 
Butler scattered seven hits, struck out five and allowed just two earned runs – it was his first complete game of the season.  He stranded eight runners on base – Butler left the bases loaded in the third and seventh innings to give the Highlanders (15-14, 4-3 Big South) an opportunity.
 
Ryan Retz picked up the win (5-2) for High Point (21-12, 6-1), striking out eight in 5 1/3 innings. Jaime Schultz went the final inning and a third to earn his sixth save. High Point's pitching staff struck out a school-record number of batters for a single game, and stranded 11 Radford base runners.
 
Sal Pezzino went 3-for-4 and got the Panthers on the board in the first inning with an RBI single, giving them the lead for good.  Dane McDermott had a two-out RBI hit in the second inning and Retz knocked in a run on a groundout to the right side in the fifth.
 
After Retz retired the first nine Radford hitters in order, the Highlanders loaded the bases with no one out in the fourth inning, but managed only to get one run home on Matt Mack's sacrifice fly, cutting the High Point lead to 2-1.  Radford loaded the bases again in the fifth, this time with one out, but couldn't score.
 
In the sixth, Hunter Higgerson's one-out RBI single made it a 3-2 game.  Cory Turner drew a walk on the next play to load the bases, but the Highlanders again came up empty.
 
The series resumes with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. on Sunday.