BOONE, N.C. — Due to weather projections for Friday night, Appalachian State has changed the scheduled start time for its series-opening baseball game against Troy from 6 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
Troy is visiting Boone for a three-game set against the Mountaineers, who will be hosting their first Sun Belt Conference series of 2018. Game 2 is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium, and Sunday's finale is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Here's a look at the possible pitching matchups between App State (7-19, 0-9) and Troy (20-9, 5-4).
Appalachian State
LHP
Colin Schmid (Jr.)
Stats: 1-3, 4.54 ERA, 46 Ks in 39.2 IP
Troy
RHP Andrew Crane (Sr.)
Stats: 3-2, 4.15 ERA, 38 Ks in 39.0 IP
Appalachian State
LHP
Andrew Vaccacio (Jr.)
Stats: 1-6, 5.15 ERA, 42 Ks in 36.2 IP
Troy
RHP Daren Osby (Sr.)
Stats: 4-0, 3.43 ERA, 30 Ks in 42.0 IP
Appalachian State
TBA
Troy
RHP Rush Hixon (Jr.)
Stats: 1-1, 3.04 ERA, 26 Ks in 26.2 IP
GAMEDAY EVENTS
The first 50 fans Friday will receive an App State Stadium Blanket, and 100 children will receive a free App State Baseball Mini-Helmet on Sunday. A post-game autograph session will also be held Sunday.
Throughout the series, fans can stop by the App State Marketing table to sign-up for the App State Baseball T-Shirt Series. Fans will receive a white App State Baseball shirt for attending four Sun Belt home games, a gray App State Baseball shirt for attending eight Sun Belt home games and a black App State Baseball shirt for attending all 12 remaining Sun Belt home games.
There are exciting new amenities this year at Smith Stadium, including a partnership with the locally owned Higher Grounds Coffee Shoppe, which will have a stand-alone location and sell its beverages inside the stadium. Coffee, hot chocolate, mochas, lattes and cappuccinos are among the items that will be available.
Single-game tickets can be purchased by clicking
HERE as well as by calling or visiting the ticket office. Weekend games (Fri-Sun) are $10 for adults and $5 for youth.
Season tickets can also be purchased by clicking
HERE for the App State Ticket Central site, by calling the Appalachian State athletics ticket office at
(828) 262-2079 or by going to the ticket office, located at the Holmes Center, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Season tickets are available at just $85 for adults, $75 for App State staff/faculty (limit of two) or senior citizens (limit of two) and $45 for youth (ages 3-12).
ESTABLISHING A NEW STANDARD
App State has set a program record for season-ticket sales, beating the mark established in 2013, the year after the Mountaineers captured a league title and won 41 games, including two in an NCAA Regional.
RECAPPING THE SERIES WITH TROY
Troy, which is coming off a 16-13 win against Jacksonville State on Wednesday night, has a 7-2 lead in head-to-head matchups with App State since the Mountaineers made their Sun Belt debut in 2015.
The first series was in Boone, with Appalachian winning 5-2 in Game 2, and they played each other at Troy each of the previous two seasons. The Mountaineers took Game 2 by a 12-2 score last year, as they led 8-0 after three innings and
Colin Schmid had six strikeouts in seven scoreless innings.
LOOKING BACK AT THIS WEEK
Kendall McGowan gave Appalachian State a first-inning boost with a two-run homer, and starting pitcher
Brandon Boone made the lead hold up with seven strong innings in a 5-1 victory at Radford on Tuesday.
Boone lowered his ERA as a starter to 3.10 as the Mountaineers improved to 4-1 in midweek road games. He struck out six batters and allowed one run on four hits before giving way to senior reliever
Luke Watts, who pitched two scoreless innings. McGowan (2-for-5),
Joel McDaniel (2-for-2, double),
Alex Leshock (two RBIs and
Conner Leonard (two runs) led the offense.
STRIKING IMPRESSION BY SCHMID
Junior left-hander
Colin Schmid is fifth in the Sun Belt with 46 strikeouts, and his 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 45 strikeouts in 35.2 innings over his last six starts, as his first start was interrupted and cut short by rain.
Before his five-inning, eight-strikeout outing at Georgia Southern and his start last weekend at South Alabama, Schmid ranked ninth in the Sun Belt with a 2.30 ERA, 11th with a .204 opposing batting average and sixth with 6.03 hits per nine innings.
Schmid has moved forward from a sophomore season in which his 79 strikeouts tied for sixth place on App State's single-season list. His ERA of 3.61 in 2017 ranked fourth among returning full-time starters in the Sun Belt Conference, and after posting four of his six wins in Sun Belt play, there were only five returning pitches with more wins in league play last year.
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 a Friday or Saturday starter. He is sixth in the Sun Belt with 42 strikeouts.
Vaccacio recorded a career-high 10 strikeouts and allowed two runs on five hits in seven innings at South Alabama last weekend, raising his total to 19 strikeouts over 13 innings in his last two starts. He allowed one earned run on two hits and struck out nine batters in six innings at Georgia Southern.
In four of his seven starts, Vaccacio has allowed two runs or less while pitching at least six innings.
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. He took another hard-luck loss after allowing one earned run on four hits and striking out seven batters in 6.0 innings against UNCW.
Vaccacio 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 in Boone.
TAKING A BOW OUT OF THE BULLPEN
App State's primary relievers have 89 strikeouts in 90.1 innings this season.
Kaleb Bowman (24 Ks in 19.2 IP),
Luke Watts (21 Ks in 18.1 IP) and
Reed Howell (17 Ks in 12.1 IP) are all averaging more than a strikeout per inning.
Cameron Kepley (8 Ks in 9.1 IP) and
Andrew Papp (5Ks in 5.2 IP) are close to that figure.
Bowman, a junior transfer from Spartanburg Methodist, has given up no runs, allowed seven hits and struck out 16 batters in his last 12 innings of work.
He struck out five batters and allowed two hits in two scoreless innings of the series opener at Georgia Southern, and strikeouts accounted for three of his four outs in a scoreless appearance at Gardner-Webb, where he picked up his first career victory. He pitched three scoreless innings against South Alabama last weekend.
Last year at Spartanburg Methodist, Bowman had a 4.58 ERA and 5-4 record on the mound with 53 strikeouts in 57 innings.
CLOSING THE CASE
Senior closer
Luke Watts hasn't allowed a run in 10 of his last 12 appearances. That stretch began with two scoreless innings at UNCW, and Watts struck out three batters in two scoreless innings at Radford on Tuesday.
Watts had scoreless innings with two strikeouts in back-to-back appearances against Elon and N.C. Central in mid-March. He added another two-strikeout, one-inning, no-run appearance at Gardner-Webb before striking out one batter in a scoreless inning at South Alabama.
