ASU pounds

High Point, A&T Aggies
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Appalachian State shook off a weekend of bad of baseball by winning the final two games of its five-game homestand Tuesday and Wednesday.

It began with a 10-3 win over High Point Tuesday and followed with a 10-1 win over North Carolina A&T Wednesday. Both games were at Smith Stadium.

Instead of going into their three-game set with The Citadel this weekend on a losing note, the Mountaineers go to Charleston, S.C. with a two-game winning streak.

“We’ve still got some things to work on, but I thought there certainly were some positives to take out of the last couple of days,” Mountaineers coach Chris Pollard said. “We were really good with our situational offense and today we pitched well at times. We still need to cut down on the walks, but at the same time, we had some stretches in this game when we did things well on the mound.”

Appalachian State’s offense made sure its pitching staff pitched with comfortable leads. The Mountaineers got all the runs they needed in the first two innings against North Carolina A&T. Rand Smith drove in a run with a double, which was followed immediately by a two-run double from Jason Altenhof in the Mountaineers’ four-run second inning.

Altenhof was thrown out at third trying to stretch his right-field double into a triple. Two batters later, David Rubinstein cracked a solo home run, giving the Mountaineers a 5-0 lead.

If the second inning was all that the Mountaineers needed, their five-run fourth inning was a major insurance policy. Jason Rook drove in a run with a single and Jarred Faggart drove in two more with a single. Another run scored by Wes Hobson on an error gave the Mountaineers a commanding 10-0 lead.

“When our offense is going, we’re definitely going to win games,” Rook said. “We have faith in our pitchers that they can shut other teams down.”

Appalachian State’s pitching staff did just that to both North Carolina A&T and to High Point. Nick Terry kept A&T’s bats silent by pitching 3 2/3 innings before Nelson Santos broke Terry’s no-hit bid with a single. Terry was pulled in favor of Aubrey Edens following Santos’ hit.

Rook, Calvin Teague, David Rubinstein finished the game on the mound for the Mountaineers.

“I was just trying to get contact and get three quick outs,” Rook said. “Nothing special. Just get three up and three down and keep the momentum going.”

Pollard said that even if Terry had gotten through the fourth inning without giving up a hit, Terry would have been pulled.

“That was by design today,” Pollard said. “It was a plan to go three innings with Terry. Their lineup had those two lefties coming up at the beginning of the fourth and he had done a really good job with them. His pitch count was low enough, so we said go and get those two lefties. He got them so quick, so we said let’s see if we can get through the fourth and then go with Aubrey. When he gave up that hit, we knew it was time to go with the right-hander.”

Zach Quate made sure High Point’s offense stayed silent. Normally a relief pitcher, Quate made the most of his start by scattering six hits and striking out two in seven innings. Quate gave up a single to start the inning, but that runner was eliminated in a double play.

Quate went on to retire the next 13 batters he faced. High Point got on the board in the seventh inning on an RBI single from Tucker Stobbe.

Appalachian State led 3-0, which included a solo home run by David Towarnicky, his fourth of the season. ASU took a 4-1 lead into the eighth inning when the Mountaineers scored four more runs to seal the victory.