Commentary: App nine

better than sixth place
By Steve Behr, sports editor
sports@wataugademocrat.com

If Appalachian State’s baseball team doesn’t have a chip on its shoulder heading into the Southern Conference season, it should.

The Mountaineers were picked to finish sixth by both the league’s coaches and the SoCon’s Media Association in preseason polls. This is the same Appalachian State team that finished fourth in the league last year.

No, really. There are a few minor changes, but this is, more or less, the same team. Severn of nine starters returns to the lineup, including the DH.

That includes third baseman Isaac Harrow, designated hitter-catcher Andrew Franco, pitcher Garrett Sherrill and shortstop Jason Altenhof. All were named to the preseason All-SoCon Team.

And that didn’t even include right fielder David Rubinstein, a preseason All-American who hit .361 last year and had 30 doubles. Don’t be shocked if he, or any of the other players listed above, get drafted by Major League Baseball.

When was the last time that has happened? Certainly notduring my tenure as the Grand Poobah of the Watauga Democrat Sports Institute.

Actually, I don’t blame anybody not picking them to win the league championship. But sixth? Hasn’t anybody been paying attention to what’s been going on up here lately?

Head coach Chris Pollard has put together a team that I think is ready for prime time.

After years of losing records, the Mountaineers finished 33-26 last year overall and 14-13 in the SoCon.

That’s not earth shattering unless you consider that they were 10-42 and 10-43 just a few years ago.

The talent level is light years ahead of those teams. But to reach the top, they’re going to have to win more games against the top teams. A victory over Charleston was great in the SoCon Tournament, but the Mountaineers were swept by the Cougars in a three-game set during the regular season.

Charleston invades Boone for a three-game series this year. Appalachian State has to win at least one of those games, and be very competitive in the other two, to be taken seriously as a contender for the SoCon title.

They’ll also have to win more games against teams like The Citadel, Western Carolina and Georgia Southern.

They beat UNC Greensboro, on the road, in two out of three games last year, but lost to the Spartans in the opening round of the SoCon Tournament.

Still, this is a good baseball team that has grown up together. They took their lumps in previous years, but that’s the past.

The future looks good and the expectations are high, much higher than a sixth place finish.