ASU opens

at State
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

When Appalachian State baseball coach Chris Pollard thought about putting together the 2008 edition of the Mountaineers, he knew one thing had to change.

“We had to lower our ERA by at least one point,” Pollard said.

Appalachian State did not have a lot of trouble scoring runs last season. Getting people out was a different story. The Mountaineers had a team ERA of 5.95. That was good enough to get Appalachian State a fourth-place finish with a 32-26 overall record, 14-13 in the SoCon.

But it’s not good enough to join the Southern Conference elite, win a league championship and earn a spot in a College World Series regional. So Pollard went back to the recruiting trail and added a transfer from East Carolina and a junior college transfer to bolster the starting rotation.

Josh Dowdy, a right-hander who was with East Carolina last year, takes over one of the weekend starting jobs. Dowdy is the likely starter when the Mountaineers begin a three-game series at N.C. State this weekend.

The junior-college transfer is left-hander Nick Terry, while Jason Rook returns to start the third game of the weekend rotation.

Matt Anders and Aubrey Edens, weekend starters last year, will be the weekday starters this season.

“I feel great about our one-through-five starters,” Pollard said. “I feel those parts are interchangeable. I really wanted to have a left-handed starter on the weekend, so I could go right-handed, left-handed, then right-handed.”

Having an abundance of starting pitching, a luxury for some teams, allows Pollard to keep staff ace Garrett Sherrill as the closer. Sherrill had a high ERA of 5.09, but also finished with a 10-5 record.

Sherrill, a 6-foot-5 junior from Kannapolis, struck out 75 batters in 76 innings last year and gave up 90 hits.
“He feels good and he’s thrown well,” Pollard said.

Most of the everyday lineup returns from last year. Preseason All-American David Rubinstein returns to the outfield. Rubinstein hit .361 with 30 doubles last season.

Rand Smith, Rook and Nick DeRose can also play in the outfield. Rook will play when he’s not pitching and when he is, DeRose will play left field. Smith will play centerfield “about 70 percent of the time,” according to Pollard.

The infield also returns intact with David Towarnicky and Stewart platooning at first base, Wes Hobson at second, Jason Altenhof at shortstop and Isaac Harrow at third base. Andrew Franco returns as as the designated hitter.

DeRose, one of the most versatile Mountaineers, can back up either second or third base. Adam Beasley and Jarod Faggart return at catcher.