@GoASU Memorable Games #1

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th

Game 1: Trotman and Blevins earn All-America status

We missed the moment on our entire countdown, but it does not take away from the accomplishments of Austin Trotman and Kyle Blevins. We totally goofed in thinking the countdown was about actual games versus memorable moments. The team and individual performances by track and field and wrestling made this countdown more about moments, compared to one particular athletic event.

We finish the countdown with 18 correct guesses out of 30, however the winner of the challenge correctly guessed 17 moments. Something must have happened in the process of submitting our entry. Maybe we typed in the same moment twice. Maybe our entry was never submitted. Maybe, the tiebreaker went to Jefferson Waugh considering we were already receiving a media guide in the mail with our Yosef donations. So, let us double check our guesses against GoASU.

Our list included:

  1. Baseball defeating LSU 11-1, winning the series. Big C: 2  GoASU: 11
  2. Baseball defeating UVa in NCAA Rregional play. Big C: 3  GoASU: 2
  3. Football defeats #1 Georgia Southern at home. Big C: 4  GoASU: 3
  4. Wrestling dethrones champion Chattanooga 21-17.  Big C: 5  GoASU: 13
  5. Women’s Basketball rallies past NC State in WNIT. Big C: 6  GoASU: 4
  6. Baseball defeats Oklahoma in NCAA Regional Opener. Big C: 7  GoASU: 14
  7. Women complete Track sweep with Outdoor Title. Big C: 8  GoASU: 6
  8. Baseball rallies past WCU in the 9th to clinch SoCon:  Big C: 9  GoASU: 5
  9. Women’s Basketball pounds UTC in SoCon Semifinal:  Big C: 12  GoASU: 17
  10. Volleyball turns back NC State in home opener.  Big C: 13  GoASU: 29
  11. Men’s Track wins Outdoor Title at SoCon meet.  Big C: 14  GoASU: 7
  12. Women’s Indoor Track wins title at SoCon.  Big C: 16  GoASU: 9
  13. Men’s Golf wins Hummingbird Invitational.  Big C: 17  GoASU: 16
  14. Women’s Golf wins Low Country Intercollegiate. Big C: 19  GoASU: 15
  15. Men’s Basketball upsets Charleston in SoCon Tourn.  Big C: 20  GoASU: 19
  16. Men’s Soccer knocks off Coastal Carolina 1-0.  Big C: 23  GoASU: 24
  17. Field Hockey gets first win at Radford.  Big C: 26  GoASU: 30
  18. Men’s Tennis defeats College of Charleston 5-2.  Big C: 29  GoASU: 22

In the grand scheme of things, whether Jefferson won or we did does not really matter. After double checking with links it appears we may have confused an indoor track moment with an outdoor track moment. GoASU used an outdoor photo for the article on the indoor team winning, while using a cross country photo to explain an outdoor track and field title. Who really knows what happened??

 

@GoASU Memorable Games #2

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th

Game 2: Baseball 6, Virginia 5

We ranked this game at the #3 spot in our countdown. This was a truly memorable game considering what was at stake. Both Appalachian and Virginia were playing for the right to be beaten twice in a regional championship. The game was played a day late, but brought a great crowd on a Sunday afternoon in Charlottesville. The Mountaineers jumped on the Cavaliers early with six runs in the first two innings. Seth Grant pitched his heart out before giving way to Ryne Frankoff and Nathan Hyatt to close the game.

We improved to 18/29 in the countdown and will most assuredly guess the top game correctly, which we believe is the 1-0 Baseball win over LSU.

 

@GoASU Memorable Game #3

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th

Game 3: Football 24, Georgia Southern 17

Just about every time Georgia Southern and Appalachian meet on the gridiron, the games become an instant classic, and 2011 was no different. Both teams have upset the other in consecutive years when the road team was the top ranked team in the country. Snow fell for the most of the morning in Boone that fall Saturday before clouds cleared for a warm 39 degree day that included 20 mph wind gusts. The Appalachian defense limited the Eagle triple option attack to only 135 yards on 51 carries while Jamal Jackson threw for 222 yards and three touchdowns. It was Appalachian’s third win all time against the country’s top ranked team, with all of those wins coming at home. This moves us to 17/28 for the challenge.

@GoASU Memorable Games #4

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th

Game 4: Women’s Basketball defeats NC State in WNIT

We worry starting to worry about this game making the countdown. We detailed the victory here over four months ago. For this Mountaineer program to defeat a storied program at NC State in a post season tournament in the historic Reynolds Coliseum was a huge feat. This program has gained valuable experience in winning tough games in the last three years that will only help them in their quest for an NCAA berth next season. We might as well make our prediction public, because there is not one team in the Southern Conference that will want to win the tournament more than the Mountaineers. This correct guess moves us to 16/27 in the challenge.

@GoASU Memorable Games 9-5

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th

Games 9: Women’s Indoor Track wins SoCon Title

We had this moment ranked 8th on our countdown. Our track and field program has been so dominant, it should be news when we they don’t take home the title. The women ran away with the title by over 40 points. Our record moves to 12/22 for the challenge

Game 8: Women’s Basketball Claims share of SoCon Regular Season Title

We totally disagree with this selection, mainly because of what it might take away from this team as the countdown progresses. It was nice to win the conference title, but we get a feeling this team is already tired of that being their accomplishment in conference play. This team wants to go earn the berth the NCAA tournament, not clinch a top seed at the conference tournament. This game was nowhere near our countdown and its a huge miss. We fall to 12/23.

Game 7: Men’s Track and Field wins SoCon Title

We had this meet ranked 14th overall. As we mentioned above, the track and field teams are so good at Appalachian, and our only real threat on the men’s side has been Western Carolina. This was the third win in a row and 18th overall for the men. We get our game back and move to 13/24.

Game 6: Women’s Outdoor Track wins Conference Championship

Seems like the countdown is stuck on repeat, but that’s not a bad thing in this case. This gives us our 14th correct guess on the countdown out of 25 games picked.

Game 5: Baseball 5, Western Carolina 4

This was a game that could have taken home top honors as well. The Mountaineers scored five runs in the top of the ninth to clinch their first SoCon title in 25 years. This game was extra special as a rain delay gave the Mountaineers the information they needed. Charleston had lost to UNCG and all the Mountaineers needed to do was win and they did it in the most dramatic fashion. That moves us to 15/26 on the countdown.

With four games remaining, it will be interesting to see what games were selected to top the previous moments. Football will certainly make another appearance, and it is likely Baseball could make two more appearances. Does Women’s Basketball sneak in and grab another game?

@GoASU Memorable Games 15-10

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 15: Women’s Golf Repeats at Low Country

This was a pretty simple pick. Like the Men’s golf team, this was their only tournament victory of the season so we felt confident about this pick. Most likely the only appearance by the Women’s golf team on the countdown. Yue Xu added on to her stellar career with a third place overall finish. This victory gets us back to. 500 on the countdown at 8/16.

Game 14: Baseball 5, Oklahoma 4, NCAA Regional opener

We obviously had this game ranked on our countdown, but we were way off in ranking it. We had this ranked at #7, considering how long it had been since the baseball team even appeared in the NCAA tournament, much less get a win in the opening game. Ryan Arrowood took a no-hitter deep into the game and the Mountaineers held off the Sooners in the final innings. We will take the win in the countdown to move us to 9/17, but this was still somewhat of a miss. We just thought this game meant so much more.

Game 13: Wrestling 21, Chattanooga 17

With consecutive games, or moments we have misjudged the importance of a game to a particular team. We had this game ranked at #5 in our countdown. This was the match that wrestling had to win to have a chance at winning the title and they took to the road and made it happen. We will still take it and that moves our record to 10/18, with our third straight victory.

Game 12: Relay Squad breaks school record, finished 14th at Nationals

Let’s call this miss a baseball hangover. This was a memorable moment but it occurred in the shadows of the baseball season. It’s a miss for us and we totally whiffed on putting this in our countdown. Our winning streak comes to a halt at three and dropped us to 10/19 for the challenge.

Game 11: Baseball wins series with 11-1 beating of LSU

This one does not make sense to us. This game we felt had potential to be considered at the top spot for the most memorable games. This game or moment coming in at 11th is confusing. We had this game ranked at the #2 spot overall. Either the 1-0 win over LSU in baseball is more memorable than the series clinching win or it does not make the countdown. We are not buying it, but will gladly take the win to move us to 11/20 in the countdown.

Game 10: Wrestling 39, Davidson 10

This one is more confusing than Game 11. This game is the equivalent of beating Western in football to win the conference title. You have to do it, and yes, the result gives you an outright title, but is winning the game memorable? In Wrestling, 39-10 is a beat down. It is very similar to a 60-21 football win. Yeah the match starts without a score, but it was over before it started. Mark us down for a top ten miss and our tenth miss and this likely puts us out of the running (11/21) for winning the challenge.

 

@GoASU Memorable Games 16-17

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 17: Women’s Basketball 77, Chattanooga 52

Darcie’s Army finally made their first appearance in the countdown. Overall, we had this game ranked 12th on the countdown with this SoCon Tourney Semifinal win. The Mountaineers were dominant throughout the game. Freshman Maryah Sydnor dropped 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. This truly was a memorable game as good as Chattanooga’s program has been in the past. Bouncing the Mocs from the tourney in this fashion was just about as good as it gets. We have two more Women’s Basketball games ranked in our countdown. This game improves our record to 6/14 in the challenge.

Game 16: Men’s Golf wins Hummingbird Ivitational

In, golf winning a tournament is a big deal and this was the only win on the season for the Mountaineers. However, it came on the heels of the best rounds in program history, shooting an overall team score of 273 in the final round. Casey Komline dropped in ten birdies and an eagle en route to tying a school record low 65 on the second day. Appalachian defeated five SoCon foes in the tournament including Western Carolina, Samford, Elon Wofford and Furman. This was a correct guess on our challenge, and for the third time we were within one spot uf ranking the game correctly. We had this game ranked 17th on our countdown. We are closing in on .500 as we are now batting 7/15 for the challenge.

@GoASU Memorable Games 18-19

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 19: Men’s Basketball 93, College of Charleston 81

This game winds up being our second close call in the countdown. We had ranked this game 20th, and hopefully we made up ground on the other competitors. This truly was a great game, as the Men’s Basketball suffered many ups and downs during the season, but defeating a heavily favored Charleston team in the tournament was truly a bright spot. Seniors Ike Butts, Andre Williamson and Omar Carter all had great games in what would become their last win in the black and gold. This game allowed us to move to 5/12 in the challenge.

Game 18: Men’s Soccer 2, Davidson 0

Appalachian got revenge from 3-0 loss eight days later at home in the SoCon Tourney. Two games previous to the Davidson loss in the regular season, Appalachian was sitting atop the SoCon standings with two games to play. A very unfortunate home loss to Wofford and the loss to Davidson knocked Appalachian out of contention and dropped the Mountaineers all the way down to the 5th seed entering the tournament. Knocking Davidson out the tournament in their own backyard was sweet revenge for the loss from only eight days earlier. We did not correctly pick this game in the challenge and we now fall to 5/13.

@GoASU Memorables Games 20-21

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 21: Football 28, Elon 24

This game hurts because it was on our list as we were narrowing down our choices. It was a great game as Appalachian extended its win streak over Elon to 16 games.  Elon has not beaten Appalachian in football in nearly 50 years. The Mountaineers overcame a 21-0 deficit. The only unfortunate part, is that Appalachian has been so dominant in the series, that wins are expected. Unfortunately, this miss will hurt as much as any as we have fallen to 4/10 in the challenge.

Game 20: Volleyball 3, Georgia Southern 2

We only put one volleyball game into our countdown and that was the NC State win at home. This game and the last game missed above will sting, because it all but guarantees we have several more misses on the way in our countdown. We don’t mind guessing the wrong game in a sport, but incorrectly predicting the number of games per sport will surely add up. At this point, we thought we would be much better than 4/11.

 

@GoASU Memorable Games 22-24

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 24: Men’s Soccer 1, Coastal Carolina 0

Without a doubt, this was our best guess of the countdown. We had this game ranked #23. Coastal was not ranked, but had just beaten a ranked team. Shutouts were the key to Appalachian’s season as they totaled ten shutouts on the season. This gives a much needed victory and moves us to 3/7 on the countdown.

Game 23: Softball 7, Western Carolina 3

This was an absolute whiff on our part. How could we forget a walkoff grand slam against Western Carolina? We chose the 3-2 win over Georgia Southern, who was one of the best teams in the conference, at #30 on our countdown. This drops us to 3/8 for the challenge.

Game 22: Men’s Tennis 5, Charleston 2

This was a rather easy game to pick despite us ranking this game at the #29 spot. Charleston has been a leader in SoCon Tennis for years and this was a big win for the Mountaineers.

Almost one third of the way through the challenge, we sit 4/9, which is respectable, as the countdown should get easier the rest of the way. At this point we have appearances from both Tennis, Cross Country and Soccer teams. Field Hockey,Volleyball and Softball have also been represented.