Baseball (7-2, 2-1) wins series over Davidson

Reminder: Baseball updates will be abbreviated until after the SoCon Basketball Tournament concludes this weekend in Asheville.

Game One:

Appalachian opened its conference schedule with a 4-1 win over Davidson on the road. Jamie Nunn continued his strong start to the season, keeping Davidson off balance over seven strong innings. Nunn scattered five hits and struck out eight Wildcat batters, while walking three batters. Nunn is now 3-0 on the season, pitching 20 innings and striking out 19 to only five walks.

William Head, who has assumed the starting role at third base, picked up two hits as did Alex Leach. The corner infielders also picked all three of the Mountaineers RBI in the game. Jaylin Davis and Preston Troutman walked twice each. Taylor Thurber pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Rob Marcello picked up his fourth save of the season.

Game Two:

Appalachian carried a 3-1 lead into the ninth inning before falling in the final at bat to Davidson. Billy Jones made his first mistake as coach by leaving in Josh Wilson for what was going to be a three inning save. The Mountaineers could only retire one batter in the bottom of the ninth as Davidson produced three runs and three hits while capitalizing on two Mountaineer errors.

Jeffrey Springs pitched well enough to win despite giving up nine hits to the Wildcats. Springs struck out six batters in six innings, but had to work for it as he threw a season high 108 pitches for the game. Wilson was relieved by Thurber in the ninth, but the damage was done, as all runs were charged to Wilson.

Appalachian had six hits in the game, but no Mountaineer collected multiple hits in the game. In all, the Mountaineers struck out ten times for the game. This was a winnable game for Appalachian, even with the offense scoring their fewest runs of the season in their second loss.

Game Three:

Appalachian woke up on Sunday morning and made up for lost time from Saturday. After only accumulating six hits on Saturday, the Mountaineers pounded out 15 hits and exploded for ten runs. The Mountaineers bolted out to a 7-0 lead and never really looked back. The Mountaineers did get into a small jam in the eighth inning, where they led 10-4, but were ableĀ get out of a bases loaded jam against the Wildcats.

Sam Agnew-Wieland (3-0, 4.82 ERA) pitched seven innings striking out eight while walking one. The “Hyphen” was also wild on occasion as he hit two batters and had two wild pitches. Luckily the offense built enough of a lead for those statistics to become moot this time around. Ryne Frankoff made his first appearance of the season and gave up a run in the eighth inning. Tyler Moore threw six pitches in the ninth inning and was rewarded with three easy groundouts.

C-Notes: Appalachian has stolen 22 bases this season, with Hector Crespo tying a school record on Sunday with his 85th career stolen base…..Both Mountaineer third baseman are batting over .380…..William Head is second on the team batting .440 while Noah Holmes is batting .381….DH Dillon Dobson may lose some AB’s to Holmes as he is batting a team low .156…Appalachian failed to hit a home run against Davidson

 

Chattanooga trounces Appalachian Women

This season for the Appalachian will go down as one of the most disappointing in program history. For whatever reason, the women have underachieved to an extent that is hard to believe. Unlike the men, who played earlier in part of a doubleheader, and needed to beat Chattanooga, the women played exactly the opposite. The men dominated the Mocs earning a bye, while Appalachian lost the third seed with the Mocs using them on both ends of the court. The 45 points the Mountaineers scored were the fewest they scored all season long. The loss continued to show why Appalachian has not been as dominant, going 1-5 against the the top three teams in the league this season.

The Mountaineers will play Samford on Monday, in a game that has no meaning. Regardless of the outcome, both teams will play each other on Saturday at Kimmel Arena in the SoCon tournament. The women created the worst nightmare for a fan of both teams. Had Appalachian won, they would have almost assured that the women and the men would play at different times in the tournament’s opening days. However, the men and the women will tipoff at basically the same time on Saturday, but miles apart. The decision will be tough for a fan of both teams, but it is obvious the men are playing better at this point and will deserve more attention. It is possible that Samford could end the women’s season for the fourth straight season. Even if the Mountaineers can get by their tournament nemesis in Samford, the Chattanooga Mocs will be likely waiting for them on Sunday.