Mountaineers look

to heal themselves
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

The Southern Conference season has been rough on Appalachian State’s baseball team so far.

The Mountaineers, who are in the SoCon’s cellar with a 1-8 record (15-16 overall), face Georgia Southern this weekend for a three-game series in Statesboro, Ga. It’s an important series, if for no other reason, to forget the past three series' and start a push to the top of the SoCon standings.

However, that does not mean that Mountaineers coach Chris Pollard is obsessed with beating the Eagles, at least not yet. Appalachian State faces two midweek games, one at USC-Upstate Tuesday and one at home Wednesday against Gardner-Webb.

Pollard is more worried about making sure the Mountaineers start playing well than where they are in the SoCon standings. Once Appalachian State starts correcting mistakes, the standings will likely take care of themselves.

“We’re not going to consume ourselves with where we’re sitting right now in the standings,” Pollard said following the Mountaineers’ 7-6 loss to College of Charleston in 10 innings. “We’re going to focus on trying to get better, trying to work on the things we need to work on. Not to sound too cliché right now, but we’ve got to focus on a day at a time right now and the task at hand, which is a ballgame on Tuesday.”

Appalachian State has a non-conference record of 14-8, which includes single wins over N.C. State, Auburn, and two wins over Wake Forest.

It’s also not like the Mountaineers have lost to bad baseball teams, especially recently. No. 5-ranked North Carolina beat Appalachian State 7-0 last Wednesday after the Mountaineers smacked UNC Asheville 23-8 a day earlier. However, the Mountaineers’ three losses to College of Charleston over the weekend leaves them with a four-game losing streak.

Appalachian State takes on a USC Upstate team that is 17-16 overall, including 11-3 at home. The Spartans are also 10-8 in the Atlantic Sun.

Gardner-Webb, which just took two out of three games from USC Upstate over the weekend, is 14-15 overall, 7-11 in the Atlantic Sun.

Even with the disappointing results, Pollard felt the Mountaineers did several things well against College of Charleston. He liked how Saturday starter Matt Andress pitched before heavy fog forced a delay and ended Andress’ day.

He also was happy with a ninth-inning rally that forced a 6-6 tie Sunday. Charleston’s Joey Bergman hit a solo home run in the 10th to win the game.

Consistency is what Pollard wants to see more of over the course of the season.

“I think there are a lot of things we should point to and say we did that well this weekend,” Pollard said. “Then there are some things we have to keep working at to get better if we want to get where we want to be at the end of the year.”