STATESBORO, Ga. — Appalachian State's first Sun Belt Conference home baseball series of 2018 has moved to Georgia Southern's J.I. Clements Stadium in Statesboro, Ga., because of winter weather projections for Boone this weekend.
The Mountaineers (5-13, 0-3) will be the road team against the Eagles (9-11, 2-1), as the schools have also agreed to switch the 2019 series from Statesboro to Boone. App State has home Sun Belt series against Troy, Louisiana, Little Rock and Coastal Carolina this season.
Game 1 is scheduled for tonight at 6:30 p.m., and the series will now conclude with a Saturday doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m.
The schedule change means no Sunday finale.
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS
Game 1 (Friday)
App State — LHP Andrew Vaccacio (Jr.)
Stats: 1-4, 6.85 ERA, 23 Ks in 23.2 IP
GS — RHP Brian Eichhorn (Jr.)
Stats: 1-0, 3.38 ERA, 34 Ks in 29.1 IP
Game 2 (Saturday)
App State — LHP Colin Schmid (Jr.)
Stats: 1-1, 2.30 ERA, 32 Ks in 31.1 IP
GS — RHP Seth Shuman (So.)
Stats: 2-2, 4.24 ERA, 31 Ks in 34.0 IP
Game 3 (Saturday)
App State — RHP Travis Holden (Sr.)
Stats: 2-2, 5.89 ERA, 10 Ks in 18.1 IP
GS — RHP David Johnson (Fr.)
Stats: 1-1, 5.70 ERA, 15 Ks in 23.2 IP
RECAPPING THE SERIES HISTORY
App State has won 21 of its 85 games against Georgia Southern, a former Southern Conference rival, in a series that dates back to 1967.
The Mountaineers ended an eight-game skid against the Eagles by winning 7-3 in Game 2 of their 2017 series in Statesboro. App State's pitchers totaled 18 strikeouts, including 13 by Saturday starter
Colin Schmid, who allowed one earned run in seven innings.
Tristan Helms relieved Schmid, and
Reed Howell picked up a save by striking out five batters in two scoreless innings.
App State hit back-to-back-to-back homers in a four-homer inning that later included a two-run shot from
Conner Leonard. The outburst allowed the Mountaineers to lead 7-1 in the third inning.
SETTING THE STAGE
After playing 14 nonconference games, Appalachian State began its Sun Belt schedule last weekend with a series at cross-divisional foe Texas State. The Mountaineers played a nonconference game against Wake Forest on Tuesday and had a Wednesday game at UNC Asheville postponed.
App State opened the 2018 season with seven straight road games and will play 23 of their first 26 games on the road, with 13 of those road games being in-state matchups. The Mountaineers are now scheduled to play 36 of their 55 regular-season games in the state of North Carolina.
MAKING A SPLASH
Two freshman outfielders — left fielder
Kendall McGowan and center fielder
Alex Leshock — lead the team with batting averages of .341 and .264, respectively. Leshock leads the team with a .409 on-base percentage, and McGowan is second at .400.
McGowan, who started the first six games before being sidelined by an injury, has started the last five games in the outfield. In his 11 starts, he has batted 14-for-37 (.378) with one homer, four doubles and six runs scored.
Leshock had a double and an RBI triple in the Texas State finale to raise his average to .280, and he drew two walks against Tuesday. He leads the team with five multi-hit games (in his 15 starts), and he's reached base in all 15 of his appearances. He drew six walks in his first four games as a leadoff hitter, and he has a team-best four stolen bases this season.
CASHING IN AS A NEWCOMER
App State junior and Florida native
Andrew Vaccacio, a newcomer from St. Johns River State College, has often fared well as the team's Friday starter.
He allowed four hits and three earned runs while striking out five batters over 6.1 innings in his debut against 2017 NCAA Regional team UNCG.
Vaccacio took another hard-luck loss after allowing one earned run on four hits and striking out seven batters in 6.0 innings against UNCW. He picked up his first Division I win by striking out eight batters in 6.0 innings and allowing two runs on five hits against Marshall.
STRIKING IMPRESSION
App State junior left-hander
Colin Schmid, the Saturday starter, ranks ninth in the Sun Belt with a 2.30 ERA, fifth with 32 strikeouts, 11th with a .204 opposing batting average and sixth with 6.03 hits per nine innings.
A year ago at Georgia Southern, he improved to 5-4 by striking out a career-high 13 batters, giving up four hits, allowing two runs (one earned) and walking only one batter in seven innings of the 7-3 road victory.
Schmid's 11 strikeouts at UNCW this year are tied with two other Sun Belt pitchers for the highest single-game total in the league. He has struck out 31 batters and allowed six earned runs in 27.1 innings over his last four starts, with seven strikeouts coming against Marshall and eight more coming against Elon.
HOLDING HIS GROUND
The Friday starter in 2017,
Travis Holden gave up one unearned run in five innings of a Game 3 win to end the season-opening series at UNCG.
He allowed two earned runs, struck out six batters and issued no walks in six innings of a 13-3 win at Western Carolina.
Holden took a 2-0 record and 1.64 ERA into his March 10 start against Elon, which posted four earned runs in 5.2 innings. App State trailed 3-0 heading to the sixth inning.
COMING OUT OF THE BULLPEN
Relief pitchers
Cameron Kepley,
Tristan Helms,
Reed Howell and
Kaleb Bowman combined to allow one run on two hits over the final 6.1 innings of a loss to Texas State, as the bullpen retired 17 of the first 18 batters it faced.
On Tuesday, the Mountaineers' bullpen gave up one run in four innings, as Bowman threw two scoreless innings, Howell pitched the eighth inning and
Luke Watts had a scoreless ninth.
Watts has as two saves (at UNCG, vs. Marshall) and has closed out 10 games this season. He has given up one run over 7.0 innings in his last eight appearances. Helms, meanwhile, has four straight scoreless appearances.
