BOONE, N.C. ? Appalachian State University baseball answered North Carolina A&T's five-run seventh inning with four runs in the bottom of the eighth and stretched its home winning streak to nine games with a 9-6 win over A&T on Tuesday afternoon at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

For the second-straight game, senior shortstop Nick DeRose was the hero for Appalachian (22-17), as his double down the left-field line in the eighth drove in David Towarnicky with the go-ahead run.

ASU trailed 6-5 heading into the eighth, thanks to N.C. A&T (11-27) erasing a 5-1 lead with its five-run seventh. After going down in order in the seventh, Isaac Harrow led off the eighth for Appalachian with a bloop single into right center field.

Harrow stole second ? the sixth of ASU's Smith Stadium record-tying seven steals on the afternoon ? and advanced to third on Towarnicky's single to right field. Chris Alessandria followed with a perfectly executed squeeze bunt ? his second in just over a week ? and Harrow scored easily to knot the score at 6-6.

Following DeRose's RBI double, the Mountaineers went on to plate two more runs for insurance, the first on a run-scoring groundout by Will Helms and the second on an RBI triple to right center by Jason Wallace.

That would be more than enough support for Chris Patterson, who didn't surrender a hit in the ninth for his second save of the season.

In addition to his RBI and run in the bottom of the eighth, Helms also retired the Aggies in order in the top half of the inning to earn his first-career win.   

Overshadowed by the late scoring was the effort turned in on the mound by freshman Ryan Arrowood, who limited the high-powered A&T offense to three runs in 6.1 innings of work and was in line to get his second win until the Aggies rallied against the ASU bullpen in the seventh.

Wallace led the Mountaineers offensively with a 2-for-4, three-RBI performance. Harrow and Towarnicky also added two hits apiece, however, Rand Smith saw his school-record hitting streak snapped at 27 games with an 0-for-5 afternoon.

N.C. A&T's Chris Watson pitched a complete game but suffered the loss to fall to 1-5 on the season. Cyril Daniel (2-for-3, two runs) and Nick Rogers (three RBI) paced A&T at the plate.

Winners of 16 of its last 19 ballgames, Appalachian returns to action on Wednesday evening when it visits High Point. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.