Mountaineers

face tough week
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

If Appalachian State baseball coach Chris Pollard wanted to test his team, this is the week to do it.

The Mountaineers, who just dropped two out of three games to The Citadel this past weekend, face a Murderer’s Row of games this week beginning Tuesday at home against UNC Asheville.

It continues Wednesday with a game at No. 3-ranked North Carolina, and ends this weekend with a three-game series against traditional Southern Conference power College of Charleston.

The good news is that four of these five games are at home in Smith Stadium. The bad news is that Appalachian State (14-13, 1-5 SoCon) is facing some outstanding programs.

“It’s going to be tough. It’s one of the most difficult weeks of the season,” Pollard said. “A tough Asheville club returns a lot from last year and we’ll race a legitimate College World Series contender in North Carolina. Then we get College of Charleston this weekend.”

The game at North Carolina is interesting not only because of the team the Mountaineers will face. North Carolina is renovating its baseball stadium, so for this year, the Tar Heels are playing at the Olympic development facility in Cary.

Pollard also said that several Mountaineers know North Carolina players either through high school play, or from AAU seasons.

“It’s going to be unique to play at that facility,” Pollard said. “We’ll go there and enjoy the experience and with the expectation to play well and win the game. But we also have to prepare for an important weekend.

Very true. As usual, College of Charleston sits on top of the Southern Conference standings with a 5-1 league record, 18-9 overall. The Cougars are being chased by Elon, which is 7-2 in the SoCon, and Georgia Southern and UNC Greensboro, who are both 4-2 in the SoCon.

UNC Greensboro swept Appalachian State 3-0 in the Mountaineers’ first league series. Pollard knows that the Mountaineers need to start winning conference games quickly if they want to stay close to the top of the standings, but added that all teams in the league eventually struggle during a two-weekend stretch.

“When you look back a couple of years, you’ll find stretches where everybody in the conference went 1-5 over two weekends,” Pollard said.