ASU, Citadel both

enter tourney on a roll
By Steve Behr

Appalachian State baseball team doesn’t necessarily have fond memories of The Citadel this spring.

The Citadel beat the Mountaineers two out of three times during their three-game series this season. Citadel went on to eventually finish third in the Southern Conference, while Appalachian State, which got off to a 1-9 start in the SoCon, settled for sixth place.

The two teams face each other again in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament Wednesday beginning at 1 p.m. at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C. In March, the Mountaineers won the first game of the series 10-6, but then were flattened 12-3 and 19-2.

But things have changed a bit since that weekend. The game Wednesday matches two of the hotter teams in the Southern Conference. Though the Mountaineers got off to a horrible start in the SoCon season, they finished strong, going 14-3 to finish 15-12 in the league standings.

Overall, Appalachian State, who was 6-14 in its first 20 games, finished the season 32-19. However, the Mountaineers played well in April last season, but lost their first game of the tournament 10-8 in extra innings to Furman, beat Western Carolina 10-5 and lost to Furman again 13-12.

All the games were in Charleston, S.C.

“Last year I felt we played well enough to win the ballgame,” Moun-taineers coach Chris Pollard said of the first loss. It was kind of a flukey type of game where we felt we dominated the game, but with walks and a ball that got up in the jet stream is any other day an out.”

The Citadel (34-20, 20-10) has also been a team on a roll. The Bulldogs have won nine of their last 11 games, including a three-game sweep of arch-rival College of Charleston last weekend. The Citadel outscored the Cougars 31-7 and Citadel pitcher Matt Crim was named the league’s Pitcher of the Week after shutting out the Cougars 7-0 Sunday.

“Whether you’re a higher seed or a lower seed, you’re going to see a good arm,” Pollard said. “You’ve got to have really competitive at-bats and do a goo job of putting the ball in play with two strikes and when you get runners in scoring position, you have to get that two-out hit.”

Appalachian State went 18-2 during April and followed with a 4-2 record in May. The Mountaineers are coming off a two-game sweep of Longwood in non-conference action at Smith Stadium. Appalachian State scored 16 runs last Thursday night in the first five innings against Longwood, but rain and lightning forced the Mountaineers to finish the game Friday.

Longwood’s pitching staff regrouped and held the Mountaineers scoreless in the final three innings, but still lost 16-6. Appalachian State went on to win the second game 4-2.

“Give credit to Longwood, they pitched us tough,” Pollard said. “They made good pitches when we needed to. We allowed ourselves the chance to get work for anybody who needed work.”

Pitching has been an important part of The Citadel’s success. the SoCon’s Pitcher of the Year, Wes Wrenn, is the Bulldogs’ ace who has a 9-2 record and a 3.84 ERA. Crim is 7-4 with a 4.36 ERA, and Matt Talley is 8-1 with a 3.62 ERA.

The Mountaineers counter with an offense that can be very dangerous. ASU third baseman Isaac Harrow, who was left off the All-Southern Conference team because the co-Most Valuable Players both play third base, rewrote the Appalachian State record book this season with his career totals.

This year, Harrow is hitting .433 with 23 doubles, 75 RBIs and 88 hits. Leadoff hitter, centerfielder Rand Smith, who was named second-team All-SoCon, has hit safely in 49 of Appalachian State’s 53 games and has had three hitting streaks of over 10 games, including a school record 27.

Smith is hitting .361 with 10 home runs, 17 doubles and 40 RBIs. Second baseman Wes Hobson, who was also named the SoCon’s second-team all-league team, bats second in the lineup and is hitting .389.

The Citadel has plenty of offense of its own. Sonny Meade, a first-team All-SoCon selection, is hitting .402. First baseman Chris McGuiness and catcher Richard Jones were both named to the SoCon’s first-team All-conference team, and relief pitcher Drew Mahaffey was named to the second team.
It will be important for Appalachian State’s starting pitchers to last until at least the sixth inning, so the Mountaineers’ bullpen can take over. Chris Patterson has been solid as a set-up man for closer Zach Quate, who has an ERA of 1.19 and was named first-team All-Southern Conference.

Wednesday’s games:
Game 1: (2) Georgia Southern vs. (7) Davidson, 9 a.m.
Game 2: (3) Citadel vs. (6) Appalachian State, 1 p.m.
Game 3: (1) Elon vs. (8) Furman, 5 p.m.
Game 4: (4) Western Carolina vs. (5) Coll. of Charleston, 9 p.m.
Thursday’s games:
Game 5: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 9 a.m.
Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Lower Game 4, 1 p.m.
Game 7: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 5 p.m.
Game 8: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 9 p.m.
Friday’s games:
Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 7, 3 p.m.
Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 8, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s games:
Game 11: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 9, 9 a.m.
Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 10, 1 p.m.
Game 13: Winner Game 11 vs. Loser Game 11 (if necessary), 5 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 12 vs. Loser Game 12 (if necessary), 9 p.m.
Sunday’s game:
Championship game, 2 p.m.