Appalachian State looks to improve to 5-1 in midweek road games when it faces No. 21 North Carolina (21-11) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Boshamer Stadium. The game will be shown on ACC Network Extra.
The Mountaineers (8-21) have won midweek games at Western Carolina (13-3), N.C. Central (6-0), Gardner-Webb (8-4) and Radford (5-1). The lone loss was 7-3 at Wake Forest.
Appalachian's probable pitcher, junior right-hander
Brandon Boone, has started in six of his seven appearances this year. He has a 3.10 ERA in a starting role, as he's allowed 10 earned runs through 29.0 innings.
Boone enjoyed the longest outing of his brief career last week at Radford, where he struck out six batters and allowed one run on four hits, with the only damage coming on a solo homer in the fourth inning.
UNC's probable starter is 6-foot-6, 239-pound junior Rodney Hutchison Jr., who is 3-1 with a 4.98 in 10 games, including six starts. He has 30 strikeouts in 34.1 innings this season.
RECAPPING THE SERIES HISTORY
In a series dating back to 1974, this will be the 29th meeting between the Tar Heels and Mountaineers, who last beat UNC in 1997. Their last meeting occurred in 2015, as current seniors
Reed Howell (starting pitcher),
Luke Watts (relief pitcher) and
Conner Leonard (first baseman) played that day.
UNC, which is 10-5 in the ACC this season, has a 13-6 home record. Before losing at Miami on Sunday, the Tar Heels had won six straight games by sweeping Wake Forest, beating South Carolina 11-3 in Charlotte and taking the first two games of the Miami series.
JOINING THE 500 CLUB
On Friday, second-year App State head coach
Kermit Smith picked up his 500th victory as a college head coach when the Mountaineers won 5-2 against Troy to begin their Sun Belt Conference series.
Smith, 41, became a college head coach at Belmont Abbey in 2001 and posted a 229-225-1 record in eight seasons. He was hired at Lander in the summer of 2009 and had a 244-134 record in seven seasons, also becoming the winningest coach in that program's history. He made a combined three Division II World Series appearances at Belmont Abbey and Lander before arriving at App State before the 2017 season.
FANNING THE FLAMES
Appalachian State's pitching staff ranks in the top 25 percent of Division I (71st among 297 teams) with 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings.
Appalachian has three starters averaging better than a strikeout per inning:
Andrew Vaccacio (49 Ks in 42.0 IP, or 10.5 per 9.0 IP to rank 104th nationally),
Colin Schmid (50 Ks in 45.2 IP) and
Brandon Boone (31 Ks in 29.1 IP).
App State's primary relievers have 96 strikeouts in 102.2 innings this season.
Kaleb Bowman (26 Ks in 23.1 IP),
Luke Watts (21 Ks in 19.1 IP) and
Reed Howell (18 Ks in 14.0 IP) are all averaging more than a strikeout per inning.
Cameron Kepley (10 Ks in 12.1 IP),
Will Sprinkle (9 Ks in 12.2 IP) and
Andrew Papp (5Ks in 5.2 IP) also have good strikeout numbers.
Sprinkle, a freshman, leads the team with a 1.42 ERA in 12.2 IP over five games.
CLOSING THE CASE
Senior closer
Luke Watts hasn't allowed a run in 11 of his last 13 appearances, a stretch began with two scoreless innings at UNCW on Feb. 24. Watts struck out three batters in two scoreless innings at Radford last Tuesday and earned his third save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning Friday that required only nine pitches against Troy.
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. He also has saves against UNCG and Marshall this season.
Before making 14 starts, issuing only 20 walks in 75.1 innings and posting the best groundball ratio on the team in 2017, Watts came out of the bullpen in all 30 of his appearances as a freshman and sophomore. He led App State relievers with a 2.48 ERA in 2016.
TAKING A BOW OUT OF THE BULLPEN
Before the streak ended Sunday against Troy, junior college transfer and right-handed reliever
Kaleb Bowman had given up no runs, allowed 11 hits and struck out 18 batters in 16 consecutive innings spread over 10 appearances.
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 and had two scoreless innings Friday against Troy while pitching the seventh and eighth with a 3-2 lead.
Last year at Spartanburg Methodist, Bowman had a 4.58 ERA and 5-4 record on the mound with 53 strikeouts in 57 innings.
DEALING WITH ADVERSITY
The Mountaineers have been short-handed with position players such as infielder
Luke Allison, infielder
Calev Grubbs and outfielder
Drake Zupcic sidelined. Allison has missed the entire season after being a frontrunner to start in the infield, Grubbs is a versatile infielder who started all 55 games last season and Zupcic has batted in nine games (with two starts at DH) after starting 47 games last season.
Freshman outfielder
Kendall McGowan, an opening-day starter, missed four games before returning to the starting lineup as an outfielder vs. N.C. Central. He has started the last 16 games.
Freshman second baseman
Bailey Welch, who started App State's first 10 games, returned to the lineup at Texas State after missing the previous four games. He has started the last 15 games.
LEADING THE WAY
With 150 career starts to his credit, senior first baseman
Conner Leonard has accounted for three of the team's 12 home runs, increasing his career total to 16.
Leonard hit a two-run double Sunday against Troy, making him 5-for-10 in the series and 7-for-15 in Appalachian State's last five games.
REACHING BASE CONSISTENTLY
Junior third baseman
Drew Beck has reached base in 10 straight games, as he's recorded a hit in six of those games and also drawn a walk in six of the games.
Last year at Howard College in Texas, he hit .419 with eight HRs, 59 RBIs and 21 doubles.
MAKING A SPLASH
Freshman outfielders
Kendall McGowan (left field) and
Alex Leshock (center field) are among the team's offensive leaders.
McGowan has a team-best .244 batting average, and Leshock is second on the team with a .357 on-base percentage. He has a team-best 15 walks and seven stolen bases.
