Class of 2009 one

of the best in

Appalachian history
By Steve Behr

Isaac Harrow had many reasons not to play baseball at Appalachian State. So did Rand Smith, Zach Quate and Nick DeRose.

Aubrey Edens was the IMPACT baseball’s state 4-A player of the year coming out of high school and could have attended several different colleges. Jason Rook was IMPACT’s state 2-A player of the year, while Garrett Sherrill and David Rubinstein could have gone somewhere else.

They all chose Appalachian State.

Chris Pollard was entering his second season as head coach at Appalachian. His first year of recruiting got off to a late start, and his first year of coaching ended in a 10-42 disaster with losses to College of Charleston (24-4), Elon (29-7 and 18-2) and Georgia Southern (27-5, 15-1).

Pollard knew he had to improve the talent level of the team in order to turn the program around. However, even he had no idea that three of his incoming freshmen — Rook, Sherrill and Rubinstein — would be drafted by the 12th round of the 2008 Major League Amateur Draft.

Another three — Harrow, Smith and Quate — are also attracting attention from scouts and could be the next Mountaineers drafted into the pros.

That’s six players from one recruiting class who could possibly play professional baseball.

“It’s amazing that we’ve got guys who have the opportunity to play at the next level,” Smith said. “It’s pretty incredible to have six in one recruiting class. It says a lot about Coach Pollard and the guys who he recruited.”

While Rook (Orioles), Sherrill (Brewers) and Rubinstein (Pirates) try to climb the minor league ladders with their respective teams, the five remaining seniors who were recruited as freshmen are fighting their way back into contention of the Southern Conference. All the position players — DeRose at shortstop, Harrow at third base and Smith in centerfield — are starters.

Edens is the third-day starter during SoCon series’ and Quate has emerged as the top closer in recent Appalachian State history.

“All these guys had a chance to sign other places,” Pollard said. “We’re thankful for them deciding to come here. A lot of it was because a lot of these guys knew each other or knew about each other and said ‘Hey, let’s do this together.’”

Pollard said he asked the incoming class to trust the staff and they could help turn around a program that had not had a winning season since 1996 when the Mountaineers went 29-17.

“That’s the big thing that I’m so appreciative with them is because they took a chance on us,” Pollard said. “We told them that. When we went through the recruiting process, we told them that we need you to trust us and to take a chance. We believe in you and that you have a chance to play early, but we need you to take a chance on us and that we’re going to continue to bring in good players to put around you. It was huge for them to say that we want to be the guys that really got this thing going.”

Smith was a starter in right field during the first game of his freshman season. Smith, who is from the small town of Bolivia, located about 15 miles southwest of Wilmington, hit a triple in that game, which was played in Kannapolis, Sherrill’s hometown.

“A lot of guys who I played high school ball with played for Coach Pollard at Pfeiffer,” Smith said. “We had a connection there. I went to a camp in my sophomore and junior year and he liked me there. I stayed in contact with him and I felt like he was the coach I wanted to play for.”

Smith has played all outfield positions for the Mountaineers, but settled into centerfield last year after Chris Baker, the final holdover from the Troy Heustess era, graduated. This year, Smith set the new ASU record with a 27-game hitting streak this year. He’s hit safely in 43 of ASU’s 45 games this year and raised his average to .349.

He started the season with a 10-game hitting streak before that was snapped. He followed with his 27-game streak and has a current streak of six games, getting multiple hits in five of those games.

However, Smith, who is tied with Chris Alessandria and Jerod Faggart on the team with seven home runs despite being the leadoff hitter, had to adjust to the outfield since he was a shortstop at South Brunswick High School.

“They moved me to the outfield once I got here,” said Smith, who got three hits in front of several family members who made the long trip from Bolivia to see him play against Wofford on April 25. “I feel more comfortable in centerfield than I do anywhere else.”

Quate, who has a team record 10 saves this year, stepped into the role of closer after Sherrill was drafted. He’s made the most of it by posting a 0.54 ERA going into this weekend’s games with UNC Greensboro.
Opponents are hitting just .170 off of Quate (1-1), who has 45 strikeouts in 33 1/3 innings in 25 appearances on the mound. Just two of the six runs he’s given up all season have been earned.

Quate wasn’t moved to the closer’s role until this year. Last season, he was the part-time set-up man for Sherrill, and also started seven games.

“I’ve always been pretty versatile, I believe,” Quate said. “I thought I could start or relieve. I always felt better coming out of the bullpen. I thought I could come in and just blow it all out for one or two innings, not hold anything back.”

But he developed into a closer during the summer season, and Pollard kept him there when the Mountaineers began fall workouts. Quate also likes the pressure that preserving a one-run lead can bring.

“I like that,” he said. “It helps me knowing that if I can help the team, this will be big.”

Quate, who went to Raleigh Wakefield High, felt that the players Pollard had brought in made it easier for him to attend Appalachian State. Quate was recruited by Furman and Elon, but felt more comfortable around Pollard and his staff.

“I did sign early,” Quate said. “There had probably been around eight guys who had signed at the time. A lot of them were familiar to me when I was growing up, Isaac Harrow being one of them. I played against him in AAU ball countless times. Coach Pollard seemed like he knew what he was doing with the baseball program. With the names I saw coming in and the opportunity I had as a freshman coming in, it made my decision for me.”

Edens, who prepped at D.H. Conley in Greenville, also chose Appalachian State because of the number of solid recruits he felt Pollard had signed.

“They had a new coaching staff up there and I knew they were going to turn things around,” Edens said. “I was expecting big things to come from this team and I thought I could come in and make a big impact right off the bat.”

Edens played both shortstop and pitched at Conley and then played third base and pitched during his freshman year at Appalachian State. Edens eventually settled into the starting rotation his sophomore year, starting 11 of his 16 games then and 11 of his 15 appearances last year.

This year, Edens has a 5-2 record with a 4.91 ERA. He’s stuck out 44 batters in 52 2/3 innings pitched and opponents are hitting .268 against him.

“It was hard to adjust to not playing every inning of every game,” Edens said. “That was the biggest detriment.”

Edens also learned he had to adjust to college hitters, who were all stars in high school.

“Most of the time, (batters) one through nine can hit,” Edens said. “In high school, it may only be the top four. That took some adjusting to, but you’ve got to focus on every pitch and every hitter.”

Harrow, who prepped at Hickory High, has not only developed into a solid third baseman, but also one of the most feared hitters in the Southern Conference. He holds team records in doubles (63), RBIs (191), hits (244), total bases (398) and is four at-bats away from overtaking Chris Behne, who has the mark of 712.

Harrow has also played in 190 games with 175 starts. Baker holds the team record by playing in 197 games.
Harrow’s currently hitting .432 with 11 home runs, 65 RBIs and 21 doubles. He bats third in the lineup and has started all 45 games for the Mountaineers.

“We have a good group of ballplayers,” Harrow said. “We’re all talented and we come out with the same purpose, to win. With Rand in centerfield and me at third and Aubrey starting and Nick DeRose starting at shortstop, we all have the same purpose, so we’re just going for it.”

Harrow said he’s not surprised that the Mountaineers have been playing some of the best baseball they’ve played since Pollard took over.

“It’s why we all came here,” Harrow said. “Four years ago we knew this was a group of guys who could do great things here.”

DeRose had the longest route to find a starting position. He saw spot duty during his first three seasons at second base, shortstop and third base. He took over the shortstop position earlier this season and has not given it back.

“It has been a little bit of an up and down road for me,” DeRose, an R.J. Reynolds High graduate, said. “My role was going to be more or less a utility guy. I did have a chance to fill in at shortstop this year and it’s been great.”

DeRose spent most of his playing time during this freshman season at third base. His playing time dipped somewhat his sophomore and junior seasons, but this year, he’s hitting .351 with eight doubles and two home runs.

DeRose is also unique in that his father, Marc, is the team’s unofficial photographer. Several of his photographs have appeared on Appalachian State’s web site.

“All of a sudden in my senior year in high school he goes out and buys a nice and expensive camera,” Nick DeRose said. “He didn’t know a whole lot about photography, but it’s been a process for him. He’s really taken some nice pictures and he’s learned a lot about it and the guys enjoy his pictures.”

Pollard said having a connection with IMPACT baseball, an organization that hosts summer league teams featuring some of the top players in the state, has helped recruit Smith, Rook, DeRose, Harrow and Edens. It’s also helped them recruit other players in later years.

“Smith was one we got from IMPACT baseball, which has been really good for us,” Pollard said. “Andy Partin and the job he’s done with IMPACT baseball, they’ve been really good to us. ...They all worked on each other and we’ve had other guys since that point who have been with IMPACT baseball who have come here too.”

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. During their freshman season, in 2006, Edens was one of eight pitchers the Mountaineers used — Quate was warming up in the bullpen — when Elon overcame an 8-1 deficit in the ninth inning to win 9-8. Harrow, who battled injuries his freshman season, hit .177 in 2006, a far cry and distant memory from the MVP-like season he’s having now.

But things started to turn around that season. Appalachian State finished 24-31-1 in 2006 and went 33-26 the next year, which included an 11-10 victory over regular-season champion College of Charleston in the Southern Conference Tournament.

Appalachian State got off to a slow start in 2008, but won 10-of-11 games during a stretch of the season and went 32-27. However, Furman rallied to beat the Mountaineers 13-12 in the loser’s bracket of the SoCon tournament ASU’s season ended in disappointment.

Appalachian State is playing its best baseball by far heading into this weekend when it plays a three game series at UNC Greensboro. The Mountaineers went 18-2 in April and have won 22 of their last 25 games.

They also have a 14-game home winning streak.

This is all after starting the season 6-14 overall, 1-9 in the SoCon. A win over Georgia Southern to avoid a sweep at Smith Stadium March 22 seemed to spark the Mountaineers into their current hot streak.

“It’s a credit to these guys that when we were 6-14, nobody panicked, nobody jumped off the ship. Nobody questioned each other, they just kept playing,” Pollard said. “And all through that stretch when we lost nine out of 10, every day we’d get down there after a ballgame, we were that close to rattling off a bunch of wins and they believed it.”

It’s the kind of team Edens felt the Mountaineers would eventually evolve into.

“We’ve gotten better each year,” Edens said. “Everybody thought last year was our year, but this year I think we’re doing 10 times better than last year.”

“All of these guys have gotten better and better since they got here,” Pollard added. “They’ve battled through some injuries. Isaac had his struggles his freshman year, but they stuck with it. They’re such good people with such good work ethics that they just continued to climb.”

Meet the Class of 2009
Name                                         Pos.           Hometown                  High School
Nick DeRose                          SS          Winston-Salem           R.J. Reynolds
Aubrey Edens                         P            Greenville                  D.H. Conley
Isaac Harrow                         3B           Hickory                     Hickory
Zach Quate                            P            Raleigh                      Wakefield
Rand Smith                           OF           Bolivia                       South Brunswick
*Jason Rook                          OF/P        Greensboro                Western Guilford
*David Rubinstein                   OF           Charlotte                   South Mecklenburg
*Garrett Sherrill                     P             Kannapolis                A.L. Brown
*Currently playing professional baseball