High Point University Baseball

High Point University Athletic Director Dan Hauser announced the hiring of Joey Hammond as the head coach of High Point's baseball program on June 17, 2021. He becomes the fourth head coach in HPU's Division I era and the eighth skipper in program history. In Hammond's third season with the Panthers, he made history as they won their first Big South Tournament Championship in program history as they clinched a spot in the NCAA Tournament. With a 35-27 overall record, and a 17-7 record in the Big South, the High Point Panthers set a new record for most wins in a single season in the Division I era. Hammond spent the last seven seasons in the Triad as a volunteer assistant coach at Wake Forest where he worked with hitting and the outfielders. He guided 17 Demon Deacon hitters to All-ACC honors during his tenure and saw eight players recognized as All-Americans in his seven years. Hammond played 11 years professionally before getting into coaching and was drafted in the 25th round of the

Head coach Joey Hammond announced the addition of volunteer assistant coach Chris Maness on July 14, 2021. Maness comes to High Point after serving as the head coach for Northwest Guilford High School for the last two seasons. He got the Vikings off to a 3-3 start in the 2020 season before the COVID-19 Pandemic prematurely ended it and then led the team to a 13-4 record in 2021 and a trip to the NCHSAA 4A Quarterfinals. Maness also served as an assistant coach at Ragsdale High School and as the head coach at Northwest Guilford and Jamestown Middle Schools. Maness pitched for four years at Elon and is tied for the third-most appearances (88) and has the second-most saves (21) in Phoenix baseball history. He was selected in the 28th round of the 1998 MLB Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies and played 27 games in the minors that season before making 34 appearances for the Independent League Chillicothe Paints in 1999.

Orndorff was brought on to the baseball staff in August 2023 as the Director of Player Development. With a promotion in August 2025, Orndorff now serves as an Assistant Coach - as he specializes in hitting - and is the Recruiting Coordinator for the Panthers. During his collegiate years, Orndorff played for Penn State (2017-2019) primarily as a catcher and an outfielder before transferring to Seton Hill. During the 2020-21 season, he was the center fielder for the Griffins as he studied Exercise Science. A 39-8 record during his time in Greensburg, PA., as he had a batting average of .353, with 18 stolen bases, 15 home runs, and 43 RBI's. Orndorff was placed on the PSAC First Team All-Conference and First Team All-Atlantic Region Team, while his team was Atlantic Regional Champs and went on to make a World Series appearance. He finished his collegiate career playing centerfield at Liberty University in 2022.

High Point University has added Jerry Edwards as the new Pitching Coach, announced by head coach Joey Hammond on Monday, July 10. Edwards was promoted to Associate Head Coach in August 2025 after serving two seasons as the pitching coach under Hammond at the helm. Edwards joins the Panthers after spending the past four seasons at Jacksonville University. While with the Dolphins, he helped develop one of the top pitching staffs in the ASUN Conference, won the 2021 ASUN Baseball Championship, and he helped advance the team to the Colombia Regional. Multiple school records were broken during Edwards time at JU, which included breaking the program record for K/9 in a season, set just one year prior, with 9.70 over 492.0 innings pitched. He also helped the team break a 32-year-old program record for lowest batting average against in a season, allowing opponents to bat just .247 which made for the third fewest hits allowed in a season, all during the 2022 season.