ASU takes two from Bulldogs
By Steve Behr

Appalachian State did not pull off a three-game sweep of The Citadel over the weekend, but winning two out of three was not bad in its own right.

The Mountaineers swept the Bulldogs in a doubleheader Saturday, winning the first game 9-5 and the second 9-8. The Citadel salvaged part of the weekend by beating the Mountaineers 12-5 Sunday afternoon.

All of the games were played at Red Lackey Field.

Appalachian State (9-24, 5-10 Southern Conference) broke an eight-game losing streak by sweeping the Bulldogs (12-18, 5-10) Saturday. Hammering that sweep along was Kevin Butler, who went 4-for-5 in the first game with three doubles and four RBIs.

“I was just a little more patient at the plate,” Butler said. “I was waiting for something I could drive.”

Butler followed by going 2-for-4 in the second game and by driving in three runs. He was hitting a team-high .376 before Sunday’s game, when he cooled off and went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Still, he finished the series hitting .368 even though his streak of multi-hit games ended at six.

Butler is 16-for-30 (.533) over the last seven games and has hit safely in 14 of his last 15 games. During that stretch, he is hitting .475 (28-for-59). Butler gets a chance to add to his totals Tuesday at Red Lackey Field against Gardner-Webb, weather permitting.

“I think he was a little fatigued (Sunday),” Mountaineers coach Chris Pollard said. “I want him to take (Monday) and not even think about baseball. We’ve got to make sure we get him plenty of rest down the stretch.”

The Mountaineers got plenty of hitting from others as they collected 13 hits the first game and 10 more in the second. Appalachian State opened the first game with an RBI triple by Brad Peisel and an RBI double from Butler to take a 2-0 lead.

Chris Baker, who had two hits, including a double, drove in a run with a single in the second inning. Jordan Ivey and Joey Robinson added RBI singles in the third inning and Butler’s RBI single in the fourth gave the Mountaineers a 6-0 lead that was never in jeopardy.

Scott Clark made sure the lead would hold by scattering 12 hits over eight innings. Chris Swauger gave an idea of what he would do Sunday by belting a solo home run in the fifth inning.

Swauger had three hits in the second game of the doubleheader and two more, including a two-run home run, in Sunday’s game. Josh Stackley did the most damage for the Bulldogs Sunday with a two-run homer in the first inning and a two-run double in the second as The Citadel rolled to a 6-0 lead after two innings.

Stackley added an RBI single in the fourth inning and a double in the eighth. He walked two other times, giving him six trips to the bases in as many at-bats. The Bulldogs, looking much sharper at the plate, finished with 17 hits off four Appalachian pitchers Sunday.

“What they did do today is they hit some tough pitches,” Pollard said. “And when we made some mistakes pitching-wise they hit those, too. I tip my hat to them. They swung the bats well (Sunday).”

The Mountaineers collected 13 of its own hits, including three singles from Jimmy Mathias.

Mathias entered the game for Luis Arce, who was hit in the head with a pitch in the second inning by Citadel starter Griff Beckham. After taking about five minutes to get back on his feet, in front of a silent Red Lackey crowd, Arce took his base.

After playing one more inning in the field at third base, Arce left the game and Mathias took over.

Brooks Haislip added two doubles, including one that drove in a run in the third inning. After Mathias drove in a run in the fifth inning with a single, the Mountaineers did not score the rest of the game.

The Mountaineers don’t return to their Southern Conference schedule until Friday, when they begin a three-game series at Davidson. The Mountaineers are tied with The Citadel for eighth place in the SoCon and hold half-game leads on Davidson and Furman.

“We’ve still got to approach it one game at a time and I hate to use that cliche,” Pollard said. “But right now we can’t start looking that far down the road. I don’t want our guys thinking about that or checking the standings Monday morning. I want us focusing on us playing good baseball.”