It seems the best way for Appalachian State to win games during the week is to fall behind early, have a big inning later in the game and then let the bullpen preserve the victory.

Okay, so it’s not the ideal way to win baseball games and it’s not how coach Chris Pollard writes it up on a chalkboard. Yet Appalachian State was able to overcome first-inning deficits and beat East Tennessee State on Tuesday and Gardner-Webb on Wednesday.

Appalachian State outscored East Tennessee State 11-0 in the final four innings of the Mountaineers’ 15-12 victory, and followed with an eight-run second-inning in their 12-10 victory over Gardner-Webb. East Tennessee State (14-19) took a 5-0 first-inning lead and also led 12-4 in the fifth inning.

The victories gave the Mountaineers some momentum heading into their three-game series at College of Charleston beginning Friday night.

“Our pitching’s been good, so I think we’ll be all right,” Mountaineers second baseman Wes Hobson said. “We’re swinging the ball well and playing good defense, so if we can do all that then we’ll be all right.”

Gardner-Webb (17-15) led 4-0 at the end of the first inning, but a grand slam by Isaac Harrow and a three-run home run by Jerod Faggart sparked an eight-run second inning by the Mountaineers, who added three runs in the third inning to take an 11-4 lead they would never lose.

“We’re not drawing it up that way,” Pollard said. “We need to find some guys during the middle of the week who can give us more consistency and an opportunity to get into the fourth and fifth innings. Once we got to the fifth inning, our guys pitched well.”

Faggart also hit a two-run home run against East Tennessee State and went 2-for-3 against the Buccaneers with three RBIs. Harrow nearly had a first-inning home run Wednesday night, but Gardner-Webb centerfielder Brock Miller reached over the wall and robbed Harrow of his extra-base hit. Harrow also had a double and scored a run in the eighth inning.

“I thought Isaac had a good approach,” Pollard said. “He had one taken away from him, no doubt about it.”
Appalachian State (19-16), which has won eight straight games, cranked out 28 hits, 14 in each game, in the two-day set of games. Rand Smith extended his hitting streak to 24 games, two short of the school record of 26 set by Tommy Green back in 1988.

However, Smith may have aggravated a bruised kneecap against Gardner-Webb when he chased down a deep fly ball to the centerfield wall during the Bulldogs’ five-run rally in the fifth inning. He made the catch, but had to come out of the game.

Appalachian State also lost catcher Jeremy Dowdy in the sixth inning when Kurt Fulginiti ran into him in a play at the plate. Fulginiti was called out for not sliding, but Dowdy left the game in pain.

Plenty of other Mountaineers made contributions to the offense. Jason Wallace went 2-for-3 with three RBIs against East Tennessee State and followed with a 2-for-4 performance against Gardner-Webb. David Towarnicky was 2-for-5 with an RBI and Hobson went 2-for-5 against East Tennessee State, and Hobson followed with a 4-for-5 performance against Gardner-Webb.

“We’ve found lots of ways of coming back after getting down early,” Hobson said. “I had confidence in our pitching. They’ve done a good job all year, so hopefully when we go to Charleston we can get shut them down in the first couple of innings and get some runs on the board.”

Appalachian State is also doing a better job of driving in runs, according to Pollard.

“That’s really the difference now from four or five weeks ago when we’d have 12 hits, but they’d be spaced apart,” Pollard said. “We’re getting them in bunches two and three at a time.”

Appalachian State fell behind in both games after East Tennessee State greeted starter Ryan Arrowood with a five-run rally, and Gardner-Webb stuck four runs on Seth Grant. However, neither team scored a run in the final three innings of their games.

That’s because Andrew Webster, Will Helms, Nick Daniels and Zach Quate shut the Buccaneers down Tuesday night, and Daniels and Chris Patterson did the same to Gardner-Webb the following game. Quate has picked up six saves and a victory in his last seven games and has an ERA of 0.72.

Quate wasn’t sure he would even pitch Tuesday after the Mountaineers fell behind to East Tennessee State.
“I was very skeptical,” Quate said. “As the game started progressing, I realized that there might a chance, so I started getting loose.”

Tony Mendez had three of East Tennessee State’s 13 hits. Ben Allen drove in five runs, which included a three-run home run in the fourth inning, and Danny Petro had a two-run home run in the first inning for the Bucs.

“That’s the thing about our team, we never really panicked,” Towarnicky said Tuesday night. “We kind of kept going about our business and we played great defense. To not have an error on a night like this with the rain coming down and sloppy field conditions is really a testament to our infield and our outfielders.”

Appalachian State 15, ETSU 12
East Tennessee State 520 320 000 — 12 13 3
Appalachian State 020 205 24X — 15 14 0
Plumlee, Andrews (3), Gouffon (5), Hoilman (6), Allen (8), Caldwell (8) and Trent. Arrowood, Port (2), Webster (6), Helms (7), Daniels (8), Quate (9) and Faggart. W—Daniels (1-2), L—Allen (0-2). S—Quate (7). LOB—ETSU 7, ASU 5. 2B—ETSU, Mendez 2, Hoilman, Trent, Allen; ASU, DeRose, Faggart. HR—ETSU, Allen, Petro; ASU, Faggart. SF—ETSU, Hoilman; ASU, Harrow, Faggart, Wallace. SB—ETSU, Fabry. CS—ASU, Hobson. HBP—ASU, DeRose. DP—ETSU 1, ASU 1.

Appalachian State 12, Gardner-Webb 10
Gardner-Webb 400 051 000 — 10 18 1
Appalachian State 083 000 01X — 12 14 0
Lewis, White (3)_, Watts (4), Maxa (8) and Boyles. Grant, Miller (1), Webster (4), Jo. Dowdy (6), Daniels (7), Patterson (8) and Je. Dowdy, Trappy (8), Faggart (9). W—Miller (2-2), L—Lewis (2-1). S—Patterson (1). LOB—GW 6, ASU 6. 2B—GW, Boyles; ASU, Harrow, Alessandria, DeRose, Wallace. 3B—GW—Miller, Rizzuto. HR—GW, Boyles; ASU, Harrow, Faggart. SH—ASU, Towarnicky. SF—GW, Spake. SB—GW, Miller, Ahearn; ASU, Hobson, DeRose. CS—GW, Cooke. DP—ASU 1.