Daily Archives: February 10, 2013

2013 Appalachian State Baseball Preview

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Luckily, I was able to in take a few innings of Appalachian’s final scrimmage before their opening series this weekend at NC State. It was hard to keep track of the players, considering the players were not wearing their numbers. It seems the team has not had as much live action as they did last year when the winter was milder in Boone.

The relatively young pitching staff will be depended on heavily this season. Returning are sophomores Jamie Nunn and Jeffery Springs who are expected to be the Friday and Saturday starters. Both Springs and Nunn had great freshman campaigns. Nunn finished 5-2 with a 4.24 ERA in twenty-three appearances, six of them being starts. Nunn spent time in the bullpen in the last half of 2012. Springs was 2-1 in twelve appearances, five starts and held a 4.80 ERA. In a weird twist, last year’s 2012 Sunday starter Rob Marcello has been moved to the closer role, where he will look to fill in production lost from Nathan Hyatt who had 16 saves in 28 appearances. Marcello had trouble getting deep into games last season. Filling in the third starter role will be junior college transfer Sam Agnew-Wieland, who began his career at Georgia State. The right-hander is considered a strikeout pitcher, but will also give up a lot of singles. His 2011 Georgia State statistics can be found here. At Middle Georgia College in 2012, Agnew-Wieland started fourteen games and went 7-3 with a 2.36 ERA with three complete games, while leading the staff in innings pitched (84.0). If Agnew-Wieland does have a weakness, he tends to hit batters quite often. His full 2012 stats can be found here.

In 2012, Appalachian had a memorable season and went to the NCAA regional for the first time in decades. Outside of their starting pitching, the Mountaineers got plenty of run support from their experienced lineup. That lineup lost several seniors to graduation and juniors to the minor leagues. Tyler Tewell was expected to catch this season, but was drafted by the Atlanta Braves after playing right field exclusively last season. Expect Preston Trouman to take over in right field. In center field, Appalachian expected to see the return of Tyler Zupcic who was injured last year in the regional against Oklahoma. Zupcic suffered a setback in rehab late last year and is expected to redshirt. His loss will affect the leadership and run production at the top of the Mountaineer lineup. Taking over in center field for Zupcic will be the freshman Jaylin Davis, who has similar tools as Zupcic. Davis can cover ground in the outfield and will be expected to steal some bases. Brandon Burris will likely be in left field. Burris spent time at several positions in 2012, but was mostly effective in left, and his bat will be counted on as he is one of the toughest outs on the team.

The infield does not see nearly the turnover as the outfield. Alex Leach will start at first base, taking over for the graduated Trey Holmes. Hector Crespo and Will Callaway provide a very solid middle infield on defense and offense. Both have the green light to steal bases and will likely be at the top of the lineup. Third base is a question mark. Noah Holmes has always played great defense at the hot corner, but his bat is shaky. Freshman Dillon Dobson could see time at third base if he can swing the bat. Dobson is maybe the best true athlete on the team. Josh Zumbrook will likely start the season at catcher, but expect to see a rotation behind the plate. Alex Minton was Zumbrook’s high school teammate at West Wilkes, so expect some competition at the position between the former teammates.

Expecting the season Appalachian had last season is a lot to ask for. Even the SoCon writers and coaches feel the Mountaineers will take a step back. The media picked Appalachian to finish fourth while the coaches picked the Mountaineers to finish sixth. Four points separated fourth place Samford, fifth place Georgia Southern and Appalachian in the coaches poll. In the media poll, Appalachian edged out Georgia Southern by one vote and Western Carolina by four votes.

Predicting the season:

Predicting a baseball season is tough, but we will try it for the first time ever. The Mountaineers are scheduled for 56 games, thirty of those  in conference. I think the Mountaineers can easily win 15-17 games in conference play. There is a fine line between the top six and the bottom five in the conference.

The 26 non-conference games include NC State, Butler, Cornell and Gonzaga in three game series. Two games series are scheduled with North Carolina A&T, Georgia, ETSU, High Point and UNC-Asheville. Single games will be played against Canisius, Eastern Kentucky, Campbell and North Carolina. I expect the Mountaineers to also win 16-17 games in non-conference action. So, in the end, I think we are looking at a team that can go 32-24 give or take a few games and rainouts. Appalachian will only be as good as their pitching staff this season, which is very young, but also talented. Middle relief will be heavily relied upon early on. Run production will come, and Appalachian will need a find a way to replace the base stealing, and extra base hits that the team excelled in last season.

Appalachian Men & Women Sweep Furman

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Women’s:

Appalachian needs to get respond quickly to its first home loss of the season. The best way to do that might be by playing the Furman Paladins. Surprisingly, Furman has won two games in a row over Western Carolina and Samford, and has been playing a bunch of close games of late. Furman only lost by three to conference leading Chattanooga, which represents their only loss in their past five games. Appalachian made rather easy work of the Paladins earlier this season in a fourteen point win. Furman (10-12, 6-7) is playing for seeding down the stretch. They are only 2.5 games behind Appalachian and 1.5 games behind fifth place Samford. If they could finish around 10-10 in conference play, that could sneak them into the sixth seed, and perhaps into the fifth seed, depending on Samford and other tiebreakers.

Appalachian is a much more skilled team than Furman, and I fully expect the Mountaineers to respond to their poor performance on Saturday. Furman is always a game team, and they beat Appalachian two years ago in Boone in one of the final homes games of the season. The game had no impact on conference standings, but it was a gloomy loss.

Postgame:

It was a big night for the stars of the women’s team. Appalachian had to fight to keep Furman at bay for the entire game, but their efforts were good enough for a ten point win. Anna Freeman got behind the defense for several easy layups that led to her shooting 9/15 from the field for 24 points. Anna also was big on the glass, pulling down 12 rebounds. Maryah Sydnor was also effective scoring 19 points and Kelsey Sharkey continued her strong play with 10 points and seven rebounds.

As a team, Appalachian only attempted three shots from behind the arc, but went to the free throw line often. The Mountaineers were 19/25 from the line, outscoring Furman by twelve points at the charity stripe. Appalachian also outrebounded Furman by nine and actually hit the offensive boards for one of the first times all season. The Mountaineers had been getting killed on the offensive glass, but grabbed eleven on Monday evening. Next up for the Mountaineers is Wofford on Saturday for the annual Play4Kay charity game.

C-Note: Anna Freeman scored her 1700th point in the first half, and her 24 points for the game took her to 1,710 points for her career. Anna grabbed her 900th rebound three games ago against Georgia Southern and currently has 918 career rebounds.

Men:

Appalachian and Furman will face off for the first and only time this season in the regular season. Furman has had a rough year, but has been playing better of late as well. The Paladins(6-16, 3-8) are in the midst of a three game losing streak. Their three conference wins are over UNCG, Georgia Southern and Wofford, all since January 14th. The Paladins are 1-9 on the road this year overall, that only win coming at UNCG.

Colin Reddick is the only Paladin averaging in double figures at 12.9 points per game. Charlie Reddick adds 9.8 points per game and Stephen Croone adds 9.3 points per game. Both Reddick’s lead Furman in rebounding, combining for almost twelve rebounds per game. Furman is fresh off of a four game homestand and will be playing their first road game since January 24th.

Appalachian remains in contention for the fourth seed in the conference tournament. Appalachian is in a tie for fifth with Western Carolina at 6-6, sitting only a half game behind Samford, who sits at 6-5, having played one fewer game. Appalachian has already split with Western this season, and will play Samford in a couple of weeks at home. This game is one that the Mountaineers need in order to stay in contention. It is a game that should be considered a must-win, especially with a big game at Elon on Thursday looming. The remainder of the schedule for Appalachian stay in the state of North Carolina. Three home games follow the road games at Elon, and Greensboro on Sunday.

The spread has opened up at 7.5 points. Furman has covered some games recently, and that is a shaky number. If it goes higher, I will be highly tempted to take Furman.

2:13 UPDATE: Line has dropped to 6.5, which I fully expected. I believe that is a great 50/50 number. Furman is bad, but can Appalachian respond after the whooping at Davidson? We will ride the Apps.

Postgame:

Another game, another long stretch without scoring points, allowing the visiting team to get back in the game. Appalachian led by 18 points in the first half, at 34-16 with 4:13 remaining in the first half. It appeared Appalachian was going to cruise to an easy victory, until the Mountaineers decided to go to the locker room with time still remaining. Not only did Appalachian not hit a field goal in the final four minutes of the first half, they could not even get to the free throw line. They went scorless in the final minutes of the first half.

Furman pulled to within six points at halftime and slowly chipped away at the Mountaineer lead. With 1:31 to play, Furman cut the deficit to one point after hitting a three. Appalachian would outscore Furman 8-3 in the final ninety seconds to hold onto second place in the SoCon North. Chattanooga knocked off Samford to give the Bulldogs their sixth conference loss, one half game behind Appalachian and Western who are tied for second, 2,5 games behind first place Elon. Appalachian vists Elon on Thursday night, which will basically eliminate the Mountaineers from SoCon North contention if they lose.

Nathan Healy had a double-double for the Mountaineers with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Michael Obacha scored a season high 14 points, by going 6/6 from the free throw line. Obacha has been shooting 50% from the free throw line prior to the Furman game.

Appalachian fell one point shy of covering the spread in heartbreaking fashion. That is the second time this season Appalachian lost a huge lead at home with a manageable spread and lost the cover. The other was Georgia Southern. We expect Appalachian to be underdogs to Elon on Thursday night.