App State takes on Cougars
By Steve Behr

Appalachian State is playing some of its best baseball of the 2009 season. The big question facing the Mountaineers is: Can they extend that into three wins at College of Charleston this weekend?

The Mountaineers travel to take on the traditionally powerful Cougars beginning with a game Friday night at Patriot’s Point at 6 p.m.. Single games on Saturday and Sunday, both begin at 1 p.m.

The Mountaineers go into their series with the Cougars with a 19-16 overall record, 8-11 in the SoCon. Appa-lachian State swept Samford at Smith Stadium last weekend and took two out of three from Furman the weekend before. They split a doubleheader with Davidson two weekends ago, losing the first game on a walk-off home run, but winning the second game, meaning the Mountaineers have won six of their last seven SoCon games.

“We’re playing pretty good ball right now,” Mountaineers first baseman David Towarnicky said. “We’re just going to try to keep rolling with it.”

Appalachian State has won eight straight games, including a 9-7 win over Tennessee last week, and back-to-back wins over East Tennessee State and Gardner-Webb Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. A well-rounded approach has helped.

Appalachian State cranked out 28 hits in beating East Tennessee State 15-12 and Gardner-Webb 12-10. Isaac Harrow belted a grand slam against Gardner-Webb and went 4-for-5 against East Tennessee State.

Pitching, especially late in games, has also been a plus for the Mountaineers. Zach Quate has saved six games and earned a win in another in his last seven appearances. Nick Daniels, Chris Patterson, Will Helms and Andrew Webster also made significant contributions from the bullpen during the week.

“I think we’re really gelling as a team right now,” catcher Jerod Faggart said. “We’re really starting to come together and things are going good.”

However, Appalachian State has had its problems with College of Charleston in past regular seasons. The Cougars (21-13, 10-8) swept App-alachian at Smith Stadium last year, and the Mountaineers have not beaten Charleston during the regular season since 2003.

The only time the Mountaineers have beaten the Cougars during that time was an 11-10 victory in the 2007 SoCon Tournament.

“We’re a different club right now,” Mountaineers coach Chris Pollard said. “I don’t think we get caught up in all of that. There are a lot of new faces on this club who haven’t been there for all of that.”

However, the Cougars have struggled in Southern Conference games lately. Elon swept them last weekend and Georgia Southern did the same the weekend before. Charleston took two out of three from Furman three weekends ago, winning one game 27-9 and another 18-4.

Offense has been t he Cougars’ strength this season. Joey Bergman leads the SoCon in hitting with a .440 average with 10 home runs and 13 doubles. Joash Brodin is hitting .385 with 11 home runs and Clay McCord is hitting .382. Brandon Sizemore (.320) leads the SoCon with 15 home runs and Matt Mansilla has 14 to go with his .344 batting average.

The Cougars led the SoCon with 85 home runs, 16 more than the 69 that Elon has hit. However, the Cougars’ pitching staff has also given up 65.

“They are an explosive club,” Pollard said. “There are two pretty good teams and if our starting pitching holds up, we’ll be fine.”

Appalachian State would like to get Rand Smith back for the weekend series. Smith ran into the centerfield wall at Smith Stadium Wednesday while chasing down a fly ball and bruised his left knee.

Mountaineers catcher Jeremy Dowdy also left the game early after a collision at the plate with Kurt Fulginiti in the sixth inning.

“They’re going to get some treatments in tomorrow and (trainer) Josh Porter feels pretty confident that they can get him ready to go. Jeremy, on the other hand, is really sore right now. That’s one where we’re going to have to see if, after some treatment, how he feels. He took a big shot.”

Pollard said the collision with Fulginiti was unintentional.

“It was not intentionally by any stretch,” Pollard said. “What happened there was that (Fulginiti) saw the ball coming in and the ball was going to beat him. He was going to be out on the play. He started to slide and then the ball popped out and he got caught in between as to whether he should slide or not. Then he kind of barrel rolled and it was sort of in between.”