UNC-Greensboro @ Men’s Basketball

7:15 AM: First look at tonight’s spread between App and UNCG, favored the Mountaineers by 3, which is now moved to 4. As of now, would consider App at 3, and hesitate at 4. Generally this wouldn’t be a game where you would make your play moments before tipoff.

10:26 PM: The spread never moved throughout the day. Somehow the oddsmakers thought App should get their first Division 1 win of the season on this night. The experts don’t know this team like I do. My official pick was made on twitter shortly after 5pm. Despite UNCG winning only one road game this season, I took the road team and the points. UNCG went on to grab at 66-60 SU ATS win. App is now 0-11 against D1 schools and App drops to 1-6 ATS. I will tabulate my wins tomorrow. Feel positive I am over .500 on the season. I expect a big 16 or 17 point spread against Davidson.

Women’s Basketball 77 UNC-Greensboro 46

If Appalachian had any lingering effects from their loss on Monday at Elon, they let them all loose on Greensboro. The Mountaineers never trailed in this game, and raced out to a sixteen point lead at halftime over the Spartans. The Mountaineers eventually led by as many as thirty five points in the second half before closing out the game with a twenty-nine point win. Greensboro may have still had some ill effects from their food poisoning from over the weekend.

Appalachian was led by three players in doubles figures with Maryah Sydnor scoring 18 points,  and Anna Freeman and Courtney Freeman adding 13 points each. Anna Freeman secured 11 rebounds while Kelsey Sharkey pulled down 10 rebounds. The Mountaineers bested the Spartans in every statistical category, outside of free throw attempts. Somehow the Spartans only committed five fouls the entire game. The Mountaineers hit 52% from the field, and hit more threes (5), than they did free throws (4).

Appalachian is now a full game ahead of Elon, with both teams having tough tests remaining. Appalachian hosts Chattanooga and Samford this weekend while Elon has Davidson remaining on their schedule. If the Mountaineers want the third seed, they are going to have to win at least one of their remaining games to feel good about themselves. The third seed would put Appalachian on the same side of the bracket as Davidson, who they cannot seem to beat. If the Mountaineers slip to the fourth seed, they would find themselves on the same side as Chattanooga.

Women’s Basketball 81 UNC-Greensboro 58

Appalachian will host the UNCG Spartans on Sunday afternoon in a battle of two teams heading opposite directions. Appalachian is 5-1 in conference play while Greensboro is winless in conference action and have only won three games on the season overall. All of the games Greensboro has won this season have been at home, over Gardner-Webb, North Carolina Central and Norfolk State. The Spartans have lost six games in a row, none by less than 11 points. The Spartans have yet to score 70 points in a game this season.

Greensboro is being outscored by 17.4 points per game in conference play, but have played a couple of the conference heavyweights in Chattanooga, Samford and Elon. Greensboro’s leading scorer is freshman Lucy Mason, who is one of two Spartans to start every game. Mason is putting up 15.1 points per game. Janae’ Stevenson adds 10.8 points per game. In the past, Greensboro has always been a very athletic team, but sometimes, they get in their own way. Appalachian usually can force their game on the Spartans and capitalize on turnovers and fast break points.

Appalachian leads the conference in scoring offense at 72.2 points per game, while trailing only Chattanooga in scoring margin at +14 points per game. The Mountaineers also lead the conference in free throw percentage and field goal percentage while ranking third in field goal percentage defense. One thing the Mountaineers must focus on against Greensboro is the offensive boards. Charleston dominated the offensive glass on Friday Night, but Appalachian defended well enough to keep the Cougars at bay. Greensboro is second only to Charleston in offensive rebounds in conference play. We are sure the Mountaineers will focus at home, crash the boards, and run the break when they can.



 

Postgame:

Greensboro put up a good fight early on, but ran out of gas against Appalachian on Sunday afternoon. The Spartans ran out to a quick 18-9 lead at the 11:21 mark of the first half before Darcie Vincent finally called a timeout to regroup. Defensive adjustments were made, and the Mountaineers outscored Greensboro 28-13 for the remainder of the half, led by Farrahn Wood who knocked down a trio of three pointers over a span of four and a half minutes. The Mountaineers led by six points at halftime with Wood leading all scorers with nine points.

The second half saw Appalachian double their lead from six to twelve in just 2:21 and the lead slowly grew throughout the second half. Darcie Vincent was able to empty the bench in the closing minutes as the lead swelled over twenty points. Freshman Bria Huffman easily had her best game as a Mountaineer with eleven points in thirteen minutes of action. For the game, Anna Freeman led the Mountaineers in scoring with 18 points while adding seven rebounds and five steals. Raven Gary had a great overall game with nine points, ten assists and five rebounds. Maryah Sydnor had a another double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

We are a little concerned with the number of three pointers Appalachian attempted on Sunday. They were 5/23, the most attempts since the loss to Davidson. Anna Freeman missed all five of her attempts, while Katie Mallow connected on just one of her six attempts. Appalachian (12-3, 6-1), now has thirteen games remaining before the conference tournament, and their toughest stretch of games are directly in front of them. This week provides their longest stretch since December between games. The next five games will set things up before the final weeks of the season. Appalachian will face Chattanooga and Samford on the road, before hosting Elon, hitting the road against Georgia Southern, and then returning home for the rematch with Davidson. That stretch includes four of the top teams in the conference and a visit to Statesboro, where the Mountaineers never seem to play well.

Team Record Pct Home Away Neutral Streak Record Pct Home Away Neutral Streak
Chattanooga 7-1 .875 4-0 3-1 0-0 W4 14-3 .824 7-0 6-3 1-0 W4
Elon 7-1 .875 4-1 3-0 0-0 W7 10-7 .588 7-2 3-5 0-0 W6
Appalachian State 6-1 .857 3-0 3-1 0-0 W5 12-3 .800 5-0 5-3 2-0 W5
Davidson 6-1 .857 3-1 3-0 0-0 W1 9-8 .529 4-1 4-6 1-1 W1
Samford 6-2 .750 4-0 2-2 0-0 L1 9-8 .529 6-1 3-7 0-0 L1

Men’s Basketball 83 UNC-Greensboro 70

Appalachian concludes its homestand with a game against UNC-Greesboro on Monday night. Greensboro is having a very tough season, standing at 3-11 and 1-2 in conference play. The Spartans were considered a team that could win the North Division, but have not played that well. They have lost several plays to injuries recently and are short handed at the wrong time of the year. Trevis Simpson has recently had an ankle injury and a concussion, according to uncgspartans.com. The school says that Simpson is a game-time decision on Monday. Korey Van dussen broke his wrist in practice recently and he will be out for a month or more. Freshman center RJ White is also out for the season.

Darrell Armstrong has been carrying the Spartans recently. Armstrong averages 16.6 points per game but has only started four games. Armstrong has scored in double figures in all but two games this season, and tied a season high with 25 points against Western Carolina on Saturday. Simpson averages 18.0 points per game and is easily an all-SoCon performer when he is healthy. Greensboro has a very athletic team and they are tough to defend in transition. Last year, Greensboro won two of the three meetings. Greensboro overcame a huge deficit to beat Appalachian at home in overtime, and then overpowered the Mountaineers in the SoCon tourney.

We are thinking the Mountaineers should be favored here. Eventually Vegas is going to figure out Appalachian. A team cannot go an entire season covering the spread every games. Eventually things will start evening out. Regardless, we are thinking Appalachian is going to be 3 to 5 point favorite tomorrow night. We will update the spread throughout the day on Monday.

5:24 UPDATE: It took all afternoon to get a line up, despite several other SoCon games being out up last night, the Appalachian game was slow to get line. One site lined it at -4.5, but our primary book has it at -5.5 in favor of the Mountaineers. I think that is a very slippery number, and tonight could be the night the Apps lose their cover streak. However, we are going to ride the Mountaineers until they burn us. We will take the Mountaineers.

6:05 UPDATE: For what it is worth, the line has moved to -4.

Postgame:

After falling behind by as many as ten points in the first half, Appalachian exploded for 51 second half points en route to its fifth straight win, 83-70 over UNC-Greensboro. Appalachian came out of halftime down seven, and went on a 18-2 run that surged them ahead by nine points. Appalachian encountered several small runs by the Spartans in the second half, but responded every time with a huge basket of their own.

Perhaps the most noticeable statistic that gives some credit to Appalachian, is how well they have shot free throws and taken care of the basketball recently. Appalachian only turned the ball over nine times against Greensboro, while also getting to the free throw line thirty-four times. Appalachian converted twenty-eight of its free throws for a 82% clip for the game. On the other hand, Greensboro only hit eleven of their eighteen free throw attempts while Appalachian was making its run.

If there is one concern with this recent streak, is that the team is playing a very short bench. Jamaal Trice continues to play limited minutes off the bench due to illnesses. Michael Obacha played twelve minutes, the most action he has seen, mostly by staying out of foul trouble. Chris Burgess played twelve minutes as well, and hit a huge three pointer in the first half. Outside of those three, the rest of team is playing a large number of minutes each night. Nathan Healy (37), Tab Hamilton (35), and Jay Canty (32) and Mike Neal (32) are all averaging well over thirty minutes the last few games. Tevin Baskin played 29 minutes off the bench against UNCG. The scary thing, is this team is an injury away from being in real trouble due to depth.

Four Mountaineers scored in double figures, which will probably continue as long as they are playing thirty-plus minutes each game out. Healy led all scorers with 24 points while also snagging nine rebounds and swatting three shots. Mike Neal scored nineteen points, with nine of those coming on the three point line. Baskin added sixteen points, four rebounds and three steals. Canty was the final double digit scorer for the Apps with 14 points and nine rebounds. Tab Hamilton continues to struggle to find his shot, but has played good defense the last two games, first chasing Elon’s Jack Isenbarger on Saturday, and then playing against a very athletic group of wing players from Greensboro. 

For Greensboro, Trevin Simpson did play, but did not start. Simpson finished with 22 points in 27 minutes. Simpson easily has one of the best jumpshots coming off the dribble in the conference. Derrell Armstong finished with 20 points, but no other Spartan scored in double figures. Greensboro is a dangerous team thanks to Simpson and Armstrong, and can beat any team in this league on any given night. The rest of thir roster is a motley crew. Nobody really scares you. Simpson and Armstrong combined for sixteen of the twenty-three Spartan field goals.

Finally, after a line that was posted late in the day, and saw a lot of action in the hours leading up to the game, it finally settled down right where we figured it would. Although the book we use says the final line was -5.5, we know it was closer to 4 as tipoff approached. Regardless, Appalachian covered again, for the tenth time this season. The Mountaineers have yet to lose a game against the spread this season. It is really hard to believe, that a team with an RPI in the high 280’s has yet to lose against the spread. We know this will eventually even out, but for the time being, we are going to enjoy this most unlikely of statistics. The thought is that Appalachian could be considered favorites in its next two road games at Chattanooga and Samford. If we have to guess, a pick’em  could be very likely on Saturday at the Roundhouse.

North
Western Carolina 4-1 .800 2-1 2-0 0-0 L1 7-10 .412 4-2 2-7 1-1 L1
Appalachian State 3-1 .750 2-0 1-1 0-0 W3 7-8 .467 5-2 2-6 0-0 W5
Samford 3-1 .750 1-1 2-0 0-0 W2 5-12 .294 2-4 3-6 0-2 W2
Elon 2-2 .500 0-1 2-1 0-0 W1 9-7 .563 5-2 4-5 0-0 W1
Chattanooga 2-2 .500 0-1 2-1 0-0 L1 7-10 .412 4-6 3-4 0-0 L1
UNCG 1-3 .250 1-0 0-3 0-0 L3 3-12 .200 3-4 0-8 0-0 L2

Men’s Basketball 76 Virginia Tech 87

Pregame:

Virginia Tech is off to hot start with a sparkling 4-0 record and its brand new head coach, James Johnson who replaced the fired Seth Greenberg. No matter how hard he tried, Greenberg could not get his teams to the NCAA tournament often enough. Johnson is somewhat of an unknown to the common basketball fan. He spent the past five seasons at VT as an assistant and was hired to be Clemson’s coach in April before the Hokies lured him back. Johnson spent three years of his career in the Southern conference, one year as an assistant at College of Charleston and two years at Elon.

The Hokies have been impressive on both ends of the court this season. In their four wins over East Tennessee State, Rhode Island, VMI & UNCG, the Hokies have averaged 85 points per game, good enough for second in the ACC. Although Tech has given up close to 70 points on the defensive end, their statistics are impressive. Tech’s opponents are shooting under 40% from the floor, and 21% from three point range.

The Hokies are led by senior guard Erick Green who is lighting it up in his final season. Green is averaging nearly 24 points per game while also dishing out 5.5 assists a game, both numbers which lead the team. Green has contributed eight made three pointers this season, for a team that has already made 42 trifectas on the season.

Appalachian’s defense has been atrocious this season, but it seems they might have found a partial solution against East Carolina. The real question is if Appalachian can put together an entire game of offensive and defensive production. The Mountaineers are playing only seven players in their normal rotation, with only seven players seeing action in every game this season. Nathan Healy has been solid after a rough game against High Point. Healy is shooting 60% from the field, and 46% from three point land. Jay Canty leads the Mountaineers in several categories, including points per game, rebounds and free throws made and attempted. Canty could warm up from three point range, as he has only hit one of his twelve attempts.

The Mountaineers are massive 20.5 point underdogs on the road. We were way off with our guess of what the line would be. We were expecting a double digit line, but nothing as high as twenty points. Virginia Tech has covered in both of their games that were lined this season, as have the Mountaineers. Something will have to give. Appalachian could hang tight in a game that is likely to be lightly attended by fans on Black Friday. As we have mentioned in the past, Appalachian has been good against major conference opponents on the road in the double digit spreads the last two years, covering three of four such games. Virginia Tech is bound to have a rough shooting game sometime in their future, and it could be today. I’ll take the Mountaineers to cover this big spread, as I should have done earlier this week.

UPDATE: In the time it took me to write this article, the line dropped from 20.5 to 19.

Postgame:

Appalachian kept the margin close with Virginia Tech for most of the game before fouls caught up with them in the second half. Virginia Tech led for almost the entire second half, outside of Appalachian tying the score at 50 with 14:57 remaining. It was the game’s ninth and final tie of the game. From that point, Tech went on a 23-10 run over the course of the next ten minutes of game action and never looked back.

The game was decided completely on the free throw line. Virginia Tech was awarded thirty-nine free throw attempts on the afternoon and hit thirty of them, a 77% clip for the day. Appalachian countered with only 21 attempts, knocking down only twelve. The Mountaineers have been solid for a good part of this short season at the free throw line, but when they shoot a lower percentage, they do it in the worst way. Tevin Baskin and Michael Obacha were both 1/4 from the line. Even Nathan Healy missed a rare free throw. The bigger story outside of the poor shooting were the opportunities at the foul line. Even though the Mountaineers were only whistled for seven more fouls than Virginia Tech, the Hokies were able to shoot 18 more free throws. The officials even tried to nail Nathan Healy with two flagrant fouls. The first offense, the officials went to the video monitor to review if the flagrant was warranted, but it was not. On the second offense, Healy chased down a wide open layup and blocked the shot, but came down on the opponents arm on the follow through, which caused the shooter to land awkwardly, but on his feet. That foul was called a flagrant in live action, and the officials went to review the play again, and confirmed call. It was obvious at that point in the game, that the officials did not want Appalachian to win. It was one of the worst calls I have seen in college basketball, especially considering the officials could have changed the call by reviewing the play.

When all was said and done, the Mountaineers held on to cover the spread, and we made the right call. It was fourth cover in five games against opponents from the ACC/Big Ten/C-USA that the Mountaineers covered as double digit road dogs. We have evened up our record at 1-1 on the season and will look to go over .500 on the season next week as the Mountaineers return home against Duquesne. The Dukes have covered twice as underdogs this season while they have been favored twice and won, but did not cover.

Men’s Basketball 72, East Carolina 82

Pregame:

Appalachian travels to long time stat rival East Carolina tonight in the second game of a three games series with the Pirates. Appalachian and East Carolina agreed to a two and one agreement with Appalachian prior to last season, with Appalachian’s home game in the series being played last year at Time-Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte. East Carolina enters the contest at 3-0, fresh off a comeback win over UNC-Greensboro. The will be the Pirates final home game in a four game homestand to start the season as they hit the road to play Georgia State and Charlotte in the coming week. The Pirates other wins to open the season were against Washington & Lee and Methodist.

Miguel Paul leads a quartet of double digit scorers for the Pirates. Paul did not play in the team’s first two games due to a team suspension, but did score 24 points against UNCG. Paul played his first two seasons of college basketball at Missouri. Maurice Kemp is a lanky post player at 6’8 and 190 pounds. Kemp is a senior who has started all three games on the season and is averaging 18.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Marshall Guilmette is a 6’10, 240 pound freshman who has averaged 10.7 points and 6.7 rebounds while playing roughly twenty four minutes per contest. Six players on the Pirate roster measure 6’8 or taller on a team that features five seniors and four juniors.

Against High Point and Campbell, the Mountaineers started the game slowly and never held a lead in either contest. Mountaineer opponents are shooting 55% from the field this season and 40% from behind the arc. Despite the Mountaineers averaging seven more rebounds per game, most of that difference has come on the offensive glass, where the Mountaineers have out-rebounded their opponents 47-23. It will be interesting to see what kind of lineup Jason Capel will put together against a much taller team in East Carolina. Is it possible there is a Brian Okam sighting tonight?

On to our in season game of picking a Vegas winner. This is the first game for Appalachian that has been lined this season, despite the Campbell game sneaking in as a pick’em. East Carolina was an 11.5 point favorite against UNCG, but failed to cover despite the come from behind win. Last year, Appalachian was 1.5 point favorite against ECU, but never came close to winning the game. East Carolina is a 14.5 point favorite tonight. Last year, Appalachian was really good on the road covering double digit spreads at the beginning of the season, with covers at Minnesota and North Carolina. However, Appalachian has been trounced by two lesser teams than East Carolina this season and I cannot become a believer in this team until I see it. The smart play goes to East Carolina covering the 14.5 points.

Postgame:

I am not going to pretend that I know alot about this game. Due to home women’s game, I was unable to listen to any radio or video of the game, so this will be a short recap.

Appalachian played much better than expected against what appears to be a better East Carolina team. Appalachian started quickly taking an early lead, that they would relinquish and never receover from. On several occasions throughout the first half, the Mountaineers were able to cut the deficit to two points, but were not able to tie the game or take the lead. Appalachian cut the lead to three points late in the second half, but could not get a defensive stop at the right time.

We called on senior leadership from Nathan Healy, and he has responded. After going scoreless against High Point. Healy has averaged 21 points and 8 rebounds his last two games. Jay Canty added a career high 25 points and grabbed five rebounds and added five assists. Canty was 9/11 from the free throw line. As a team Appalachian was 17/20 from the line.

Overall, six players scored all of the Mountaineer points. The same six players played 93% of the minutes. Michael Obacha started, only played eight minutes, but fouled out without taking a shot. Chris Burgess also saw his minutes decline severely on what appeared to be a coaches decision. Burgess was not in foul trouble, nor did he turn the ball over in his 14 minutes of play. Tevin Baskin grabbed ten rebounds in only 27 minutes of play and Jamaal Trice added ten points in 34 minutes off the bench. Both Baskin and Trice fouled out. Tab Hamilton shot poorly once again, managing one made basket on eight attempts. Hamilton is shooting 30% from two point range on the season. Brian Okam didnt leave bench.

Unfurtunately, I made the wrong call on the point spread. I overlooked Appalachian’s decent record in the last two seasons as a double digit road dog. The Mountaineers have now covered three of their last four games in that situation. Sounds like my pick is already made for Friday afternoon’s game against Virginia Tech. However, based on the UNCG-VT game from Monday Night, its possible we may not see a large spread. It is interesting that Appalachian and Greensboro will have had three common opponents this early in the season. Greensboro and Appalachian have both covered against East Carolina. Greensboro did not cover +5 against Virginia Tech, but it was most likely a bad overreaction line from the books. If I had to guess, Virginia Tech will be favored by 9.5, but would not be surprised to see a spread as high as 11.5. Regardless, we fall to 0-1 on the season, and hopefully the Mountaineers can put together two well played games in a row.

Women’s Basketball 84, Gardner-Webb 43

Pregame:

The Mountaineer women (1-1) continue their season with their second home game this evening against Big South opponent Gardner-Webb. The Mountaineers fell in a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech six days ago in Blacksburg. Appalachian is led by senior Anna Freeman who is averaging 27 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Anna is also a perfect 12/12 from the free throw line this season. Courtney Freeman is second on the team in scoring with 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per contest. The Mountaineers have owned Gardner-Webb in the past, and this game also looks to get ugly after the disappointing loss last week.

Gardner-Webb will be playing its second road game of the season after falling to UNC-Greensboro this past weekend. The Runnin’ Bulldogs w0n their first three games of the season, all at home, over Lipscomb, Tennessee Temple and Montreat, by at least twenty points or more in each game. Against UNCG, both teams shot under 33% from the field, under 15% from three point range, and under 55% from the foul line. The two teams also combined for 56 turnovers. Catrina Green led Gardner-Webb with 20 points and 17 rebounds in the loss. On the season, Green is averaging a double-double, with 13 points and 11.3 rebounds per game. Jessica Heilig adds 10.8 points and 4 rebounds per game while Jasmine Dale pours in 11.5 points per game.



Postgame:

As we imagined, Appalachian dominated Gardner-Webb from the start. Gardner-Webb scored the first point of the game, and it was their only lead as Appalachian cruised to a 84-43 win. The Mountaineers had Gardner-Webb doubled up for most of the second half before the final margin was decided. Gardner-Webb shot poorly throughout the night and could not keep up the with the pace the Mountaineers forced. Gardner-Webb had 34 turnovers of the night, with Appalachian scoring 41 points off of those mistakes. Appalachian also dominated in the paint, with a 54-26 edge.

The Mountaineers were led by the Freeman duo, Anna and Courtney who combined to score 49 points on the night. Courtney led all scored with 26 points, leaving her only 71 points away from 1,000 point mark for her career. At her current pace, Courtney could score her 1000th point in the Mountaineers next home game on December 3rd against Georgia Southern. Anna Freeman added 23 points and continued her ways of filling up the stat sheet, adding ten rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks. Anna hit all four of her free throw attempts to remain a perfect 16/16 on the year. Anna is also on pace this year to score her 2,000th point late in the season. At her current pace, she would need to average 22.3 points per game to score her 2,000th point in the first game of the conference tournament. Anna is currently averaging 25.7 points per contest.

 

#28 Appalachian State Baseball (34-11, 18-6 SoCon) vs. UNC-Greensboro (22-23, 7-17 SoCon)

Appalachian hosts a critical series this weekend in a situation where a sweep is a almost a must if they want to win the regular season SoCon title. The Mountaineers have been flawless at home this season, with a sparkling 21-1 record. On the other hand, The Spartans are 2-10 on the road in conference play. Hopefully, the home stand can help Will Callaway get out of his slump. Callaway was batting over .400 earlier this season and has seen his average drop to .359. Pitchers Ryan Arrowood and Seth Grant will hit the mound for the last home start in their careers. Arrowood has several ASU records on the horizon, including all time wins and strikeouts. Daniel Kassouf will look to break the Appalachian all time home run record this weekend as well. Kassouf is one round tripper away from tying the school record. On the other hand, The Spartans are 2-10 on the road in conference play. Greensboro’s Trevor Edwards is the key to their offense. Edwards had 13 home runs a 31 RBI. UNCG has five batters with at least 46 or more hits, but there is a significant drop off after that. UNCG starting pitchers are below, but neither have pitched a majority of games in any weekend spot. It is likely you will see them all, but predicting who will pitch on any given day is a crapshoot at best.

Probable Starters

Game 1

ASU Sr. RHP Ryan Arrowood (8-0, 3.84) vs UNCG Fr. RHP Max Povse (2-3, 5.17)

For the first time in two weeks, Ryan Arrowood (9-0) had to work on one less day of rest, and had to respond after a long performance against Wofford last weekend where he threw 122 pitches. Arrowood left the game against the Spartans with a five run lead, where he hit the century mark in pitches for the second consecutive start. Arrowood struck out eight batters while walking three batters.

However, Greensboro was able to climb back into the contest on Mountaineer errors. Errors in the eighth and ninth innings scored four runs, with only one run being earned. Fielding has been a concern all season, and the Mountaineers are not the same team when they are putting up two or more errors in a game. However, Nathan Hyatt was able to calm down and eventually record his 11th save of the season by striking out the side in the ninth. A total of three errors were committed by Appalachian on the evening, giving up a total of four unearned runs.

Five Mountaineers recorded eight hits, with multi-hit efforts coming from Hector Crespo, Tyler Zupcic and Trey Holmes. For the first time in a long time, the heart of the Mountaineer order, Will Callaway, Daniel Kassouf and Tyler Tewell went hitless on the night, but did record three RBI and two walks.

Game 2

ASU Sr. RHP Seth Grant (6-2, 3.34) vs. UNCG So. LHP Dylan Hathcock (3-4, 3.72 ERA)

In most likely his last home start, Seth Grant did not disappoint. The senior went six innings and kept Greensboro off the scoreboard. Grant’s performance was not pretty as he allowed nine Greensboro hits on 110 pitches. However, it was the Appalachian bullpen that once again provided another underwhelming performance. A bad week for Jamie Nunn got worse when he gave up a two run home run in the eighth inning that allowed Greensboro to cut the Mountaineers lead to one run. Nathan Hyatt entered in the ninth and gave up the tying run with a four pitch walk. Tyler Moore struck out his only batter to give way to the Mountaineer bats in the bottom of the ninth.

Appalachian could not have asked for a better situation in the bottom of the ninth. Greensboro changed pitchers to a former starter who had been relegated to the bullpen late in the season. Daniel Kassouf was the first batter. Kassouf flinched on a knee high pitch that was called a ball. The next pitch was right where Kassouf wanted it. He hammered it over the left center field fence for the 5-4 walkoff win, which also gave Kassouf his 16th home run of the season, which tied the Appalachian all time single season record.

After suffering an eight pitch loss on Tuesday, Tyler Moore got the five pitch win on Saturday to up his record to 3-1 on the season. The teams combined for 27 hits, but only nine runs for the game. Both teams combined for leaving twenty-three runners on base. Every Mountaineer that picked up the bat recorded a hit with Tyler Zupcic leading the charge with three hits. Preston Troutman and Tyler Tewell also picked up two hits each.

Game 3

ASU Jr. LHP Rob Marcello (6-3, 3.66) vs UNCG Fr. RHP Lee Gilliam (2-2, 2.88 ERA)

Appalachian jumped out to a 7-1 lead through four innings and appeared it would cruise the rest of the day on its way to a sweep of Greensboro. In the fifth inning, the screws came loose and it fell apart the Appalachian pitching staff. Greensboro scored seven runs in the fifth and six innings and took a 8-7 lead with Appalachian down to its final twelve outs.

The Mountaineers were able to tie it in the seventh, but Greensboro once again answered. With two outs, a lazy ball was hit into right field. Tyler Tewell was not able to get a good jump on the ball, and it landed in front of him and then bounced over his head to give the Spartans the lead. The next batter drove in another run for Greensboro, which provided the final score of 10-8 in favor of the Spartans. Appalachian was able to get runners on in the eighth and ninth innings, but had double plays in both frames kill any chance for a rally. It was a disappointing loss, that will leave a bad taste in the players mouth while they head to exams this week, and will not play again until a doubleheader on Saturday at Samford.

SoCon Standings

Appalachian     18-6

Charleston        19-8

Samford          18-9

Elon              17-10

WCU             13-11

GSU               12-12

Citadel          11-13

Furman         9-15

At this point in the season, Appalachian controls its own destiny for a regular season conference championship, but also could finish as low as fourth place. Play this weekend will go a long way in determining the seeding for the conference tournament. Currently, Appalachian would face Furman in the first round, but that is not a certainty either. Only the top four teams are guaranteed spots in the tournament at this time.

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.

Appalachian State Men’s Basketball: UNC-Greensboro Postgame

 

The importance of the regular season reared its ugly head once again and the Appalachian State fell on the wrong side of that equation. Securing a bye in the tournament is extremely critical, and it was apparent that playing for the second straight day took its toll on the Mountaineers. Appalachian was in control of the game for the first 29 minutes of the game, when they lead by 11points. At that point, Appalachian went ice cold down the stretch, socring only six points for the remainder of the game, and netting only one basket.

Despite the cold shooting performance, Ike Butts ended his Mountaineer career in style, with 16 points and ten rebounds. Omar Carter added 10 points and five rebounds, but only shot 4-17 from the floor. After securing a seven point halftime lead, Appalachian only scored 16 points in the second half, a day after exploding for 60 points in the second half against Charleston.