Appalachian State Baseball (32-9, 16-5 SoCon) @ Wofford (17-26, 5-16 SoCon)

For the first time since their first SoCon home series, Wofford will be forced to play three games in three days. In their last two home series in conference play, against Elon and Western Carolina, Wofford was able to schedule doubleheaders on Saturday. In both of those series, Wofford took two games from their opponent. In both situations, the Terriers were able to win on Friday night behind the pitching of Brandon Yarusi, who pitched 15.1 of a possible 18 innings in those games. Against Western, Yarusi threw a complete game shutout. Those two wins account for half of Yarusi’s wins on the season. So what happened to Wofford when they had to play three games in three days in their home opening conference series against Samford? They were swept and outscored 27-14.

Appalachian must avoid the typical letdown that can occur when playing the team who is sitting in last place in the conference. Elon and Western Carolina had to learn the hard way. Appalachian’s record on the road in conference play (2-4) is not that great, but then again, the Mountaineers have visited Elon and Georgia Southern, two teams that are above .500 in conference play and will more than likely will make the eight team conference tournament. In the Chris Pollard era, Appalachian is 6-3 all time in Spartanburg. The Mountaineers swept the Terriers in 201o, their last visit to Spartanburg. Appalachian leads the league in just about every offensive category outside of hits and at-bats, but that is typical with a team that wins at home, and has had four games rained out.  

Game 1

ASU Sr. RHP Ryan Arrowood (7-0,  3.99) vs WC Jr. RHP Brandon Yarusi (4-4, 3.03)

After all the analyzation about not playing a doubleheader this weekend, Mother Nature decided to grant Wofford its wish. The opening game on Friday was rained out and forced a twinbill on Saturday. Ryan Arrowood and Brandon Yarusi did not disappoint, combing for 15 innings pitched on 246 pitches. Both starters only allowed four hits and two earned runs to their opponent. However, a costly error in the sixth inning by Wofford provided just enough of a cushion to survive. Will Callaway was able to reach third base on a throwing error. Daniel Kassouf hit a grounder to the shortstop to score Callaway and give Appalachian the 3-2 lead. Nathan Hyatt was good enough in the eighth and ninth innings to earn his ninth save of the season.

Game 2

ASU Sr. RHP Seth Grant (6-2, 3.27) vs WC Sr. LHP Pete Noordsy (2-2, 4.35)

After game one featured a pitching duel, the nightcap trended toward a shootout. The game had three lead changes and three ties, which does not sound like much, but we are talking about baseball. Neither starting pitcher factored into the decision. Eight Mountaineers collected a hit in the game, but none were bigger than Preston Troutman’s final at bat of the day. Appalachian was down to its last strike in the ninth inning with Trey Holmes on second base. Troutman calmy singled in Holmes to break a 6-6 tie and give the Mountaineers the lead. In the ninth inning, Nathan Hyatt struck out two batters to get his second save of the day and tenth of the season. David Port (2-0) worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning with three fly balls on nine pitches.

Appalachian scored six runs in its final four at bats and finished with fourteen hits on the day in the series clincher. Daniel Kassouf was 3/5 with three RBI. Appalachian was nearly bit by the error bug as only three of Wofford’s runs were earned while the Mountaineers commited two errors. Appalachian improved its record to 8-5 when committing two or more errors.

 Game 3

ASU Jr. LHP Rob Marcello (5-3, 4.11) vs WC Sr. LHP Cash Collins (4-5, 5.14)

It was a Florida type of day for Rob Marcello. The junior college trasnfer from Royal Palm Beach has struggled at time adjusting to the erratic weather in Boone. His fewest innings pitched all season came in a home game against Rider where the weather was cold and windy. Luckily, a 78 degree day in Spartanburg welcomed Marcello (6-3) to his 11th start of the season, in which he may have thrown his best game since defeating Lousiana State. Marcello went seven innings, allowed only two hits and struck out eight batters. It was only his third start of the season where he pitched through the seventh inning. It was also his second highest pitch total of the season, and his highest strikeout number as well. Jamie Nunn gave up one hit in the final two innings to complete the shutout.

Appalachian’s six runs were manufactured by familiar players, most especially the top of the lineup. Eight of the Mountaineers twelve hits came from its top four batters. For the first time all season, Brandon Burris batted in the second spot in the lineup and made the most of it. Burris was 2/3 with four RBI. Hector Crespo went 3/5 with a double, two runs, one stolen base and an RBI. Will Callaway was 2/5 with a run and a stolen base. Daniel Kassouf, Tyler Tewell and Jeremy Dowdy all added hits.

With the sweep, Applachian held onto its lead in the conference standings and also increased its lead with Charleston losing a game to Western Carolina. Charleston only has one SoCon series remaining, but play out of conference for the next two weeks. With three fewer losses than the rest of the conference, Appalachian controls its own destiny.

SoCon Standings

Appalachian       16-5

Charleston          19-8

Samford         16-8

Elon        16-8

WCU      11-10

GSU        11-10

Appalachian State Baseball (29-9, 13-5 SoCon) vs. High Point (23-21, 8-7 Big South)

High Point broke a four game losing streak on Friday evening with a win over Coastal Carolina, but fell twice in a doubleheader on Saturday to the Chanticleers. This will be the first time High Point and Appalachian play this season, as their previously scheduled game was rained out on March 20th. Since the rain out, High Point has defeated East Carolina and UNC-Charlotte in midweek games, and have lost to North Carolina and Wake Forest. Jared Avidon has pitched the majority of the midweek innings for the Panthers. Opponents are batting .386 against Avidon this season in 37.1 innings. Avidon picked up the win against ECU, and started against UNCC but did not factor into the decision. The Panthers scored 7.6 runs per game last weekend against Coastal Carolina, but had only averaged 4.1 runs per game in their previous ten contests.

Appalachian has only played six games all season long during the week. A plethora of poor weather has left the Mountaineers only completing two such games since March 20th, when the first game was rained out against High point. Since then, Appalachian has had a game start, but erased from record against ETSU, and saw two games with Eastern Kentucky also washed out. Showers are also possible tomorrow evening. Appalachian comes off the weekend after dominating Furman for a three game sweep and returning to the top spot in the conference play. Going into last weekend, Appalachian was in a four-way tie for the conference lead. Tyler Tewell was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week. Tewell’s statistics from the weekend include: .500 batting average, .571 OBP, 1.000 slugging percentage, 6 RBI, 6 runs and three extra base hits.

Probable Starters:

ASU Fr. RHP Jamie Nunn (3-0, 1.61) vs HPU Jr. RHP Jared Avidon (1-3, 8.68)

An unlikely hero, Preston Troutman was dominate all night at the plate despite renegade snow showers and blustery winds. Troutman collected three hits and two RBI in the 6-2 Mountaineer win over High Point on Tuesday evening.  Troutman’s three hits included a triple, a bunt single and a routine single to left field. Daniel Kassouf and Tyler Tewell both added two hits and an RBI. For the evening, the Mountaineers only struck out once as a team.

The bottom of the Mountaineer lineup is starting to heat up in the last couple weeks. Trey Holmes added a hit to move his average to .240. Troutman’s effort combined with his performance against Furman last weekend has brought his average to .253. If these players can continue the upward climb, it will only help take the pressure off the top six hitters, all who are batting over . 300. 

The Appalachian defense limited High Point to seven hits to seven different Panther batters. As a pitching staff, the Mountaineers only allowed two walks while striking out five. Jamie Nunn (4-0, 1.59) kept his record perfect while lowering his ERA and matched his longest start of the season by pitching six innings. Chad Farmer, Tyler Moore, Will Helms and Nathan Hyatt completed the game from the bullpen.

 

 

Appalachian State Baseball (28-9, 13-5 SoCon) vs. Furman (18-23, 7-14)

Furman got off to conference play to a rough start, getting swept by Charleston and losing two out of three on the road to Samford. Since the 1-5 start, the Paladins have played .500 baseball in conference play, with series wins over Elon, Georgia Southern and UNC-Greensboro. However, the Paladins went on the road to Western Carolina and were outscored 23-7 and swept for the first time since their conference opening series against Charleston. Furman is 3-6 on the road in conference play, with those wins coming against UNCG (2) and Samford. Furman scored a 5-4 win over #26 Georgia on Tuesday.

This is a very important series for the Mountaineers. The weather over the past month of the season has absolutely had an effect on the team rhythm. After two midweek games were rained out against Eastern Kentucky, it brings the total to four rainouts on the season, all in the middle of the week.

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Probable Starters

Game 1

ASU Sr. RHP Ryan Arrowood (6-0, 4.18) vs FU Sr. RHP Bobby Lyne (5-3, 3.78)

Appalachian sent thirty-eight batters to the plate Friday evening in a 14-2 romp over the Furman Paladins. The night was highlighted by several great performaces by the Appalachian battery. Daniel Kassouf went 4/5 with 3 RBI and hit his 14th and 15th home runs of the season. Kassouf is now one home run shy of the school record. Not to be outdone, Tyler Zupcic hit his second homerun of the season, a grand slam in a seven run sixth inning that broke the game wide open. It was Zupcic’s first grand slam at any level of baseball. Zupcic finished with three hits as did leadoff batter Hector Crespo.

Ryan Arrowood scattered seven hits and moved to 7-0 on the season. Arrowood did not walk a batter for the first time all season. Arrowood also went seven innings for the third consecutive start, and for the fifth time this season. The senior also recorded five strikeouts on the night, to give him sixty strikeouts on the season.

Game 2

ASU Sr. RHP Seth Grant (6-2, 2.98) vs FU Jr. LHP Nate Smith (3-4, 6.39)

Games two and three were played as a doubleheader to avoid incoming inclement weather, but that did not slow down the Mountaineer offense. After eighteen hits on Friday, Appalachian pounded out seventeen hits in the second game. However, the hits did not produce many runs, as Appalachian needed its final at bat to hold off Furman. Tyler Zupcic led off the ninth inning with a single on a 1-2 count to put the winning run on base with nobody out. Will Callaway who had been in a hitting slump, bunted between first base and the pitchers mound and reached based to put Zupcic in scoring position. That brought Daniel Kassouf to the plate with a chance to be the hero. Kassouf was hit by the third pitch in the at bat to move all the runners up a base. Zupcic was 90 feet away with still no outs in the inning. All that was needed was a fly ball to the outfield to get the speedy Zupcic to the plate. Tyler Tewell fouled off the first pitch of the at bat before ripping a sharp single off the first baseman’s glove into right field which brought in the winning run. It was Appalachian’s second walk off win of the season, but the first one in a nine inning game. The win clinched the series and it was Appalachian’s first one run win since March 18th.

Appalachian’s pitching staff allowed Furman a leadoff baserunner in every inning except the first. The Mountaineers lone error came on a throw over to third base to check a runner and was charged to Seth Grant. The error allowed a run to score. Nathan Hyatt earned his first win of the season pitching a scoreless ninth inning. Tyler Zupcic, Tyler Tewell, Noah and Trey Holmes had three hits each for the Mountaineers.

Game 3

ASU Jr. LHP Rob Marcello (4-3, 4.59) vs FU So. RHP Tyler Wood (3-5, 6.08)

The final game was shaping up to be another close one with both teams scoreless through the first three innings. In the fourth, Will Callaway (.385, 5 HR, 38 RBI) opened the scoring with a solo home run. Daniel Kassouf followed with a double to left field. Tyler Tewell tripled the following at bat to score Kassouf. Jeremy Dowdy scored Tewell with a groundout to the shortstop. The score remained 3-0 until the sixth inning, when Appalachian opened the inning with three straight singles from Zupcic, Callaway and Kassouf, who drove in Zupcic. A walk to Trey Holmes and two wild pitches allowed another run to score, which set up Preston Troutman, who tripled to score Holmes and Tewell.

In the seventh inning, Hector Crespo (.322, 25 BB, 26 SB) led off with a walk. Zupcic (.322, 11 2B, 26 RBI) doubled in Crespo to move the score to 8-0. Callaway and Kassouf (.387, 15 HR, 45 RBI) were both hit by pitches unintentionally to load the bases for Tyler Tewell (.393, 5 HR, 36 RBI), who hit the second grand slam of the weekend for the Mounaineers. Two more runs were scored in the eighth inning on a sacrfice fly by Alex Leach, and back to back wild pitches that scored Zupcic. Appalachian’s eleven hits were accumulated by seven batters, but only six players scored the 14 runs. Tewell, Zupcic and Callaway scored three times each.

Rob Marcello (5-3, 4.11) picked up his fifth win of the season, pitching six shutout innings. Jamie Nunn, Ryne Frankoff and Jordan Jessup pitched the final three innings to complete the shutout. For the weekend, Appalachian outscored Furman 34-7 and outhit the Paladins 46-25.

SoCon Standings

Appalachian 13-5

Charleston 17-7

Elon 13-8

Samford 13-8

WCU 10-8

GSU 10-8

Appalachian State Baseball (25-9, 10-5 SoCon) vs. Eastern Kentucky (16-17, 8-4 OVC)

Eastern Kentucky has been through an up and down season that has been filled with streaks of winning and losing. After winning three of their first four games, the Colonels went on to lose their next 6 games before winning their next seven games. Since then, they have won two and lost two. During their six game losing streak the Colonels averaged three runs per game. In their seven game winning streak, they averaged 8.8 runs per game. The offense has tailed off some in the last week, but they are still scoring 7 runs per games in the last four games, which works out to 8.2 runs per game their last 11 contests. In turn, eight of those last eleven games were at home in Richmond, Ky. The Colonels have several common opponents with the Mountaineers. EKU won two games out of three over East Tennessee State and Wofford. The Colonels split two games with UNC-Greensboro.

The recent four game road stretch was brutal to the Mountaineers. After gaining their highest ranking in school history, the Mountaineers faltered to a 1-3 week. The week saw the team batting average fall from .311 to .308 on the season. Just a couple weeks ago, Appalachian had two players above .400 on the season, and a third hitting just below that level. Currently, four Mountaineers are batting between .377 and .396 on the season. Daniel Kassouf continues his run for the SoCon triple crown. Kassouf is batting .337 with 13 homers and 41 RBI’s, which is good enough for seventh, second and second in the league, respectively.

Predicting the starting pitchers for this week should be fun. Jamie Nunn has pitched three straight weekends and still made his normal Tuesday start for Appalachian. Jeffrey Springs was the Wednesday starter when Appalachian was playing two midweek games a week. This will be the first week with two midweek games since March 13-14 when the Mountaineers played Duke and South Carolina. Eastern Kentucky has not played one midweek game since March 27th when they defeated Marshall 10-3. The Colonels used nine pitchers in that game and everyone threw exactly one inning. In a two game midweek series against UNC-Greensboro and Indiana, the Colonels used Blake Bottoms and Cody Creamer.

UPDATE: Tuesday game was rained out. Doubleheader scheduled for Wednesday.

UPDATE Wednesday 11:26 AM: Doubleheader cancelled due to rain.

#27 Appalachian State Baseball (25-9, 10-5 SoCon) @ Georgia Southern (22-16, 10-8 SoCon)

Appalachian will go on the road for only the second time this season for a conference series with Georgia Southern who has won seven games in a row. The Eagles have seem to found their groove after losing All-America candidate Victor Roache to a broken wrist earlier in the year. Appalachian and Georgia Southern have played three common conference foes this year. Both teams swept Davidson, and both teams won two games against Charleston. Elon swept Georgia Southern at home while Appalachian managed a win at Elon. The Eagles lost a series to Furman, while winning one over UNC-Greensboro. The Eagles are currently ranked #74 in the RPI according to WarrenNolan.com.

The Eagles have had ten different pitchers get a start this year and that has lead to a 5.10 team ERA. Third baseman Eric Phillips has helped pick up the slack from Roache’s injury. The senior is batting .397 and leads the team in hits, RBI’s, doubles, and total bases. Freshman catcher Chase Griffin is hitting .320 with nine home runs but has 27 strikeouts in only 97 at bats.

Appalachian will look to break out of its recent hitting slump. The Mountaineers are only batting .209 in its last two games, losses to Charleston and Gardner-Webb. It was the first time this season the Mountaineers suffered back to back losses. Errors doomed the Mountaineers against Gardner-Webb and have been a problem all season long. The issue is not constantly booting the ball or making a bad throw, but avoiding the first error. The Mountaineers have committed an error in 20 of the 31 games this season. The problem is that 37 errors have been commited in those 20 games. That basically says Appalachian commits 1.85 errors a game, in games where an error occurs. There have been 11 games where errors have not been committed. There have been nine games where one error was commited. So, in turn, Appalachian has commited 9 errors in 20 games with one error or fewer. In the other eleven games, Appalachian has commited 28 errors, which is 2.5 errors per game.

Probable Starters:

Game 1

ASU Sr. RHP Ryan Arrowood (5-0, 4.63) vs GSU Jr. RHP Chris Beck (4-2, 3.49)

Both starting pitchers got off to a rough start, but it was Ryan Arrowood who was composed enough to keep Georgia Southern at bay in a 5-1 win for the Mountaineers. Arrowood struggled with control in the early innings, with three walks in the second and third innings, but settled down in innings four through seven, scattering three hits to keep his record perfect on the season. Arrowood allowed one earned run and struck out seven batters on 105 pitches.

Appalachian got on the board early with three runs in the first inning off of Georgia Southern ace Chris Beck, who gave up four runs on the night in six innings of work. Appalachian loaded the bases in the first with back to back singles by Tyler Zupcic and Will Callaway. Beck then sandwiched a strikeout of Tyler Tewell with walks to Daniel Kassouf and Jeremy Dowdy which brought in the first run of the game. Trey Holmes singled to bring it two runs to give Appalachian an early 3-0 lead. Daniel Kassouf added his 12th homerun of the season in the third inning which Southern answered with an RBI bunt by Eric Phillips in the bottom of the inning. The score would stay 4-1 Appalachian until the ninth inning when Callaway knocked in Hector Crespo, who singled and was bunted over to second base by Zupcic. Nathan Hyatt finished the game with a rare four strikeout ninth inning in a non-save situation.

Brnadon Burris finished the game going 3-4 at the plate, but did not score. Callaway and Tewell added two hits each. Appalachian pounded out twelve hits on the night and did not commit any errors in the field. Georgia Southern head coach Rodney Hennon was ejected in the ninth for arguing the play at the plate where Crespo scored. He will not be able to coach Saturday’s game.

Game 2

ASU Sr. RHP Seth Grant (6-1, 2.22) vs GSU Jr. RHP Justin Hess (1-1, 5.67 ERA)

The issues that the Appalachian Baseball team had been facing in 2012 reared their ugly heads once again. Appalachian commited four errors, which led to five runs for Georgia Southern. It was largest margin defeat of the season for Appalachian in the 13-3 Eagle rout. The day may have been Georgia Southern’s for the taking, with the team rallying for their coach who was suspended for the remainder of the series after being ejected on Friday night. It was also the nightcap for a day of festivities as the the Eagle Football team held their annual Blue-White game.

Seth Grant (6-2, 2.98) had won his last six starts, but was nowhere near form in what became his shortest appearance of the season. It was the first time all season Grant did not get through the fifth inning. In fact, it was not a good day for the entire ASU pitching staff. Every pitcher allowed at least one run besides Chad Farmer who threw a hitless sixth inning with two strikeouts.

Appalachian was able to get its ten hits in the first six innings, but could not get a timely hit and was able to score only three runs.  Hector Crespo (.318) recorded three hits, a run and an RBI. Will Callaway (.400), Tyler Tewell (.383), and Noah Holmes (.208) had two hits each in the losing effort.

Game 3

ASU Jr. LHP Rob Marcello (4-2, 4.30) vs GSU So. RHP Will Middour (1-2, 4.61 ERA)

A furious late rally by the Mountaineers was not enough as Georgia Southern won the series with a 7-6 win on Sunday afternoon. Appalachian was winless on the season when trailing after eight innings and Georgia Southern had not given up a lead in the same scenario. Daniel Kassouf swatted his 13th homerun of the season in the eighth inning, a three run bomb which pulled Appalachian back within two runs heading into the ninth inning.

Down to their last out, pinch hitter Preston Troutman legged out an infield single which was followed by a single by Hector Crespo which put the tying run on first base. Tyler Zupcic doubled down the left field line which plated Troutman and put runners on 2nd and 3rd base. It was up to Will Callaway to deliver the game winning hit, which he came just inches from doing, when Eagle center fielder Scooter Williams made a diving catch to seal the victory.

Rob Marcello suffered the loss moving to 4-3 on the season and saw his ERA move to the highest point of the season at 4.59.  Kassouf had two hits and four RBI on the day. The starting six through nine spots in the Appalachian lineup went 0-12 on the day with two walks.

With College of Charleston playing one more series than the rest of the conference, the standings looks very odd. By winning percentage, there is now a four way tie between the Cougars, Elon, Appalachian and Western Carolina. However, Appalachian and Western are in better position with only five conference losses each.

@SoConSports Standings

Charleston        14-7

Elon                 12-6

Appalachian     10-5

Western            10-5

Sanmford          10-8

Geo. Southern    10-8

 

#27 Appalachian State Baseball (24-7, 9-3 SoCon) @ Gardner-Webb (18-16, 3-6 Big South)

Appalachian State visits Gardner-Webb in a midweek game on Tuesday in Boiling Springs, NC. The Runnin’ Bulldogs will be playing their 28th home game on the season. The Bulldogs are currently 14-13 at home this season, most recently, winning only two of their last seven home games and are ranked #160 in the RPI. Gardner-Webb has impressive road wins at North Carolina and Wofford, but also has two losses to non-Division I schools  Brevard and Mars Hill. The Bulldogs are averaging 5.1 runs per game while giving up 5.3 runs per contest.

Appalachian was ranked by several publications this week. Last week, the Mountaineers came in at #30 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, while this week they moved up three spots to #27. Appalachian moved back into the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper rankings at 30th. In the Perfect Game Top 50, Appalachian moved up six spots from last week to #27. Finally, the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll left Appalachian out of its Top 25, but would have been ranked 29th based on number of votes.

Probable Starters:

ASU Fr. LHP Jamie Nunn (3-0, 1.64) vs. GWU So. RHP Andrew Barnett (1-3, 5.20)

Appalachian was fooled by Andrew Barnett for most of the night and could only produce seven hits as they lost for the second game in a row. Barnett did not get the win, but he deserved it. Barnett was known as a strikeout pitcher and he lived up to his billing, striking out eight batters in only 6.1 innings of work.

Appalachian’s seven hits came from four players. Tyler Tewell (.375), Trey Holmes (.237) and Brandon Burris (.429) collected two hits each. Daniel Kassouf beat a throw and was credited with an infield single in the second inning. Hector Crespo struck out four times. Will Callaway ended his 21 game hitting streak. The five errors Appalachian commited in the game were a season high and were commited by five different Mountianeers.

 

#30 Appalachian State Baseball (24-6, 9-3 SoCon) vs College of Charleston (22-11, 12-6 SoCon)

Of the last five opponents Appalachian has played in baseball, four of them have had rain play a part in the games, whether it be a three games series or a single game midweek opponent. We can go back to the High Point game which was a complete rainout. The first game in the Elon series had a rain delay. The Oakland series last weekend was a scheduled doubleheader on Saturday, but the second game was postponed until Sunday. Tuesday, the East Tennessee State game was called in the third inning, which is technically another rainout. This weekend’s series against College of Charleston is forecasted to be generally seasonable temperatures, but will be cooler than what we have experienced in the past few weeks. Freeze warnings and frost will come into play on Friday Night and Saturday Morning.

Runs will most likely come at a premium, especially with the cooler weather in play. That sets up perfectly for two of the best pitching staffs in the Southern Conference. Charleston and Appalachian rank first and third respectively in team ERA. The teams are also first and or second in hits allowed, runs allowed, walks allowed and home runs allowed.

Generally, Charleston is the team in the conference who has led in most hitting statistics, but that role has been reversed, and it is Appalachian who leads in many of the power categories. Appalachian ranks first or second in the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, on base  percentage, runs scored, runs batted in, doubles and triples.

PROBABLE STARTERS

Game 1
ASU Sr. RHP Ryan Arrowood (4-0, 5.50) vs. CofC Sr. LHP Josh Renfro, CofC, (4-2, 3.05)

Appalachian shook off a couple of early errors in the first three innings and rallied to beat College of Charleston Saturday Night in Boone. Trey Holmes commited his second and third errors of the season that led to four Cougar runs and gave them a quick 4-0 lead through two and a half innings. Appalachian chopped away with single runs in the third and fifth innings which led to a two run deficit at the stretch.

The home half of the seventh inning was when the Mountaineers finally got to work. With one out, Tyler Zupcic was hit by a pitch for the second time. Will Callaway singled on the first pitch of the next at bat, giving the Mountaineers two runners on with SoCon Player of the Month Daniel Kassouf coming to the plate. Kassouf looked at one pitch, and smashed it over the wall in right center field to give the Mountaineers their first lead of the game. With two outs in the inning, Jeremy Dowdy doubled down the left field line to give Appalachian another runner in scoring position in the seventh. Trey Holmes then hit his third home run in a week on the first pitch from Josh Renfro, which gave Appalachian a three run lead through seven innings. Renfro gave up all eleven Mountaineer hits and hit Tyler Zupcic three times and Daniel Kassouf once with pitches.

Appalachian was led by Will Callaway who had three hits and two RBI. Daniel Kassouf hit his eleventh home run of the season. Jeremy Dowdyand Hector Crespo also had two hits on the evening. Ryan Arrowood lowered his ERA for the first time all season and secured the win while staying a perfect 5-0 on the season. Nathan Hyatt collected his eight save despite giving up two walks, a run and a hit in the ninth.

Game 2
ASU Sr. RHP Seth Grant (5-1, 2.42) vs. CofC Jr. RHP Matt Pegler (5-1, 2.11)

Appalachian clinched the series with an 8-2 victory over Charleston. For the third time this season, Seth Grant pitched eight innings or more and allowed four or fewer hits in picking up his sixth straight win. Grant (6-1, 2.22) struck out six batters, his second highest total of the season, in the 100 pitch effort.

The Mountaineer offense came alive in the fifth inning, which was highlighted by back to back doubles by Tyler Tewell and Jeremy Dowdy. Tyler Zupcic scored the final run of the inning on a triple, but advanced home due to a throwing error. At that point Appalachian led by 5-1 and would never look back. Will Callaway hit a three run home run in the sixth inning to extend his hitting streak to twenty games. Hector Crespo stole his team leadig 21st base of the season.

Game 3
ASU Jr. LHP Rob Marcello (4-1, 3.76) vs. CofC Jr. RHP Christian Powell (5-1, 1.51)

Charleston’s pitching staff finally delivered a decent effort on the weekend and avoided the sweep on Easter Sunday. Christian Powell gave up only three runs in six innings and struck out five batters in the win. Rob Marcello has now given up seven hits or more in three consective outings. Marcello (4-2, 4.30) has also allowed five runs or more in those same three outings.

Will Callaway (.407) extended his hitting streak to twenty-one games with an RBI double in the sixth inning. Callaway also stole his 17th base of the season. Jeremy Dowdy (.333) and Hector Crespo (.319) added two hits each in the loss.

Despite the loss on Sunday, Appalachian was still able to extend their lead in the conference standings. Elon lost two out of three at Furman. Wofford won the series, two games to one over Western Carolina. Appalachian’s next conference opponent, Georgia Southern, swept Davidson. Samford won two of three at home over The Citadel.

SoCon Standings

Appalachian    9-3

Charleston      12-6

Elon                 12-6

Samford           9-6

Western Carolina 7-5

Georgia Southern 8-7

#30 Appalachian State Baseball (22-5, 7-2 SoCon) vs. East Tennessee State (14-12, 3-6 A-Sun)

Appalachian State and East Tennessee State will renew their rivalry for the 125th time on Tuesday evening at Smith Stadium. Appalachian leads the all time series 71-53, but lost both meetings to the Buccaneers last season. The East Tennessee State lineup does have some solid hitters. They currently boast three hitters batting at least .300 or better and a fourth who is batting .297. Clinton Freeman leads the Bucs with a .363 average with 37 hits, twelve of those for extra bases. Matthew Scruggs brings the power for the Bucs with 11 home runs and 21 RBI. Keuhl McEachern will be making his first career start for ETSU. McEachern has six apperances and only 6.2 innings thrown this year, but allows a team low .167 batting average to his opponents.

Appalachian is back in the national polls after a one week hiatus. The Mountaineers were voted in at #30 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll. Previously, Appalachian was ranked 29th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. Appalachian has been led by the strong bats of Daniel Kassouf, Will Callaway and Tyler Tewell. Those three rank in the top six in the Southern Conference in batting average with Kassouf leading the trio batting .409, while Callaway is .406 and Tewell is batting .385. The trio has a combined 47 extra base hits.

Projected Starters

ASU Fr. LHP Jamie Nunn (3-0, 1.69) vs. ETSU Fr. RHP Kuehl McEachern (0-0, 2.70)

Game was rained out in the middle of the third inning. All statistics will be wiped from the record and a make up date may be scheduled.