BOONE, N.C. ?
Isaac Harrow drove in four runs and
Aubrey Edens worked seven strong innings on the mound to lead Appalachian State University baseball to a 6-3 win over Samford on Sunday afternoon at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium. The victory completed a three-game Southern Conference series sweep for Appalachian.
Harrow provided the bulk of the offense for the Mountaineers despite recording only one hit on the afternoon. His three-run home run in the third inning gave ASU a 4-2 lead that it would never relinquish and he provided a bit of a cushion with a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Edens made sure that the lead Harrow provided would stand up, as he turned in his third quality start in a row by surrendering only three runs (two earned) on five hits over seven innings. The senior needed only 100 pitches to get the ball to Appalachian's dynamic relief duo of
Chris Patterson and
Zach Quate, who combined to toss two perfect innings to close out the win.
Edens moved to 3-2 on the season while Quate earned his sixth save of the campaign, which is tied for third in ASU single-season history.
Freshmen
Ryan Arrowood and
Jeremy Dowdy added RBI singles for Appalachian, which has rebounded from a 6-14 start to win 11 of its last 13 and a season-best six in a row.
Rand Smith extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a 2-for-5 effort.
Samford (11-23, 7-11 SoCon) managed only five hits on Sunday, highlighted by a solo home run by David Schulze. Starting pitcher Andrew Jones was battered for 13 hits in 6.2 innings and charged with all six runs to fall to 3-3 on the season.
Appalachian closes out a five-game homestand with a pair of non-conference matchups this week at Smith Stadium. ASU hosts former SoCon-rival East Tennessee State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Gardner-Webb on Wednesday at 6 p.m.