Baseball Overcomes Sluggish Start to Down Wofford, 13-9
Baseball Overcomes Sluggish Start to Down Wofford, 13-9
BOONE, N.C. - Isaac Harrow went 3-for-3 with two triples and three RBI to lead Appalachian State University baseball to a 13-9 victory over visiting Wofford on Friday evening at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

The win was the 10th-straight at home, the 13th in 14 games overall and the 10th in the last 13 Southern Conference games for red-hot Appalachian (24-17, 11-12 SoCon).

Friday's contest was delayed for two hours by lightning but the 9:01 p.m. start didn't appear to adversely affect the Mountaineers at first. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Harrow belted the first of his two RBI triples to right-center field and scored one batter later on a sacrifice fly from David Towarnicky.

However, Wofford (17-20, 7-11 SoCon) answered with three runs in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth to grab a 6-2 advantage. Starting pitcher Scott Summers did his part to stake the Terriers to the four-run lead by limiting the Mountaineers to just one hit over the first three innings.

ASU began to cut into the deficit with two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth but still trailed 7-5 before taking the lead back for good with a five-run sixth.

Rand Smith provided the big hit in the five-run sixth with a two-run single up the middle. Wes Hobson and Harrow each added an RBI and Hobson scored on a wild pitch with two outs to cap the rally and give ASU a 10-7 lead.

The Terriers kept things interesting by slashing the Appalachian advantage to 10-9 with two runs in the top of the seventh, but ASU took advantage of a critical Wofford mistake in the bottom of the frame to effectively wrap up the win.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Terrier reliever Drew Sheridan struck out Jeremy Dowdy to seemingly end the inning. However, catcher David Roney dropped the third strike, allowing Dowdy to reach base on the passed ball. Jerod Faggart and Smith followed the miscue with back-to-back RBI doubles and Hobson added an RBI single to turn the would-be inning-ending strikeout into three unearned runs that stretched the Mountaineers' advantage to 13-9.

The ASU relief duo of Chris Patterson and Zach Quate went on to strike out six of the final eight batters that Wofford sent to the plate to close out the win.

Harrow pushed his batting average back above .400 with the 3-for-3 effort, finishing the evening with a .405 average for the season. Additionally, the senior became Appalachian's all-time leader in total bases, surpassing the previous school-record of 377 amassed by Tommy Green from 1984-88. Harrow also moved within five hits of ASU's all-time record of 239, currently held by Chris Behne (1997-2000).

The top third of the Apps' batting order ? Smith (2-for-5, three RBI), Hobson (2-for-4, two RBI) and Harrow ? provided seven of the club's 12 hits and drove in eight of the 13 runs.

Wofford's first three hitters also turned in an impressive evening, as Jake Williams, James Foster and Michael Gilmartin combined to go 7-for-14 with six runs scored.

Will Helms (2-0) earned his second win of the week and his career with two scoreless innings out of the bullpen. He allowed a hit but induced an inning-ending double play in the fifth to face the minimum six batters in his two innings of work.

The Mountaineers torched Terrier reliever John Cornely (3-1) for five runs (four earned) in one inning to hand him his first loss of the year.

The teams continue their three-game SoCon series on Saturday afternoon at Smith Stadium. First pitch is set for 4:30 p.m.

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