ASU takes two from Cats
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Appalachian State got off to a slow start in the Southern Conference this year. Those days seem to be forgotten.

After taking two out of three from Georgia Southern a week ago, the Mountaineers followed by taking two out of three from rival Western Carolina Friday and Sunday.

The Mountaineers won the first game 6-2 Friday and followed with a 12-8 win in the first game played Sunday, which was a makeup of the game that could not be played Saturday because of heavy rain.

The Mountaineers could have had a sweep, but blew a 4-0 lead in the third game and lost 5-4 in 10 innings.

The Mountaineers, after opening the SoCon season at 1-8, have improved to 5-10 in the league (20-21 overall) and host struggling Davidson this weekend for a three-game SoCon series.

“I think we’ve started to play better,” Mountaineers coach Chris Pollard said. “We’ve made a point of trying to not look at the standings and just focus on playing better baseball, and I think that’s starting to show up now.”

Starting pitching, a problem in earlier SoCon games, has helped key Appalachian State’s latest rebound. Josh Dowdy kept a good-hitting Catamount offense in the third game of the series down by shutting Western out for 5 2/3 innings until Blake Murphy scored an unearned run in the sixth.

Dowdy lasted seven full innings, giving up six hits and walking one until a blister on one of his pitching fingers sent him to the bench.

“I felt pretty good today,” Dowdy said. “I finally got into a pretty good rhythm. We were all on the same page pretty much all day. It didn’t work out and sometimes that’s how baseball is.”

Wes Hobson and David Rubinstein provided back-to-back solo home runs in the fourth inning to give the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead. Rand Smith added a sacrifice fly, and Jerod Faggart scored an unearned run in the fifth to put the Mountaineers in front 4-0.

Western (18-20, 7-8 SoCon) rallied for a run in the sixth and two in the eighth. With the bases loaded in the eighth, Appalachian State closer Garrett Sherrill got Reid Rollinson to hit a line drive directly to Mountaineers shortstop Jason Altenhof, who threw to second baseman Wes Hobson to double-up Blake Murphy, which ended the eight inning rally.

Western Carolina wasn’t so ready to concede. Nick Liles, facing a full court with two outs, delivered an RBI triple to center field to tie the game 4-4 in the top of the ninth inning.

The Catamounts executed a safety squeeze bunt in the 10th inning to score the decisive run.

“It’s a tough way to lose a ballgame, certainly when you’re that close,” Pollard said. “You tip your hat to them. They got the key hit in the ninth to send it to extra innings and then the bang-bang play in the 10th to win it, it could have gone either way.”

In the first game Sunday, the Mountaineers jumped Western Carolina starter Drew Saberhagen, a preseason All-SoCon pitcher, for five runs in the second inning. Appalachian State added four runs in the fourth inning, keyed by a two-run home run by Isaac Harrow. A two-run double by Brett Stewart in the eighth answered a two-run Western rally in the top half of the inning.

Jason Altenhof went 3-for-4, while Stewart, Jason Wallace and Rand Smith each had two hits. Smith’s two-run double in the second inning gave the Mountaineers a 3-1 lead.

The Mountaineers had 15 overall hits.

“We’ve had two good weekends in a row,” Pollard said. “We’ve had six games in a row where we’ve pitched really well. I think if we can continue to do that down the stretch, we can give ourselves a chance.”

Murphy reached base in the second game five times without getting a hit. He walked four times, was hit by a pitch and scored three runs.

Western finished with nine overall hits. Tyler Kirkpatrick had two of them, including an RBI double in the eighth. He scored later in the inning on a Barrett Shaft single.

The Mountaineers play at Tennessee Tuesday and at Gardner-Webb Wednesday.