BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University baseball banged out 16 hits against the Southern Conference's top pitching staff and downed archrival Western Carolina, 11-7, on Friday in the first game of a three-game SoCon series at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

With its 19th-consecutive victory at Smith Stadium, Appalachian (14-2, 2-2 SoCon) extended the nation's longest home winning streak.

Every member of ASU's starting lineup had at least one hit in as the Mountaineers torched a WCU pitching staff that brought the SoCon's lowest ERA (4.08) and opponents' batting average (.244) into the weekend series. Six of the nine Apps had multiple hits, led by freshman Ryan Stetson, who went 3-for-5.

Appalachian fell into a 2-0 hole in the first inning on a two-out, two-run homer by Catamount clean-up hitter Ollie Goulder but the deficit was short-lived, as the Mountaineers notched the first of its three three-run innings in the second to take a 3-2 lead. Freshman Tyler Zupcic provided the inning's big hit with a two-run single to left field.

Western Carolina (12-6, 0-4 SoCon) tied it at 3-3 with a single run in the fourth but Jerod Faggart gave ASU the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth when he blasted a three-run homer to left center field that made it 6-3. The home run was Faggart's fourth in the past four games and his team-leading sixth of the season.

The Catamounts cut the ASU lead to 6-5 in the top of the fifth but the Mountaineers answered with another three-run frame in the bottom of the stanza that made it 9-5.

The clubs traded a pair of runs over the game's final four innings but WCU never cut the Appalachian advantage to less than three runs the rest of the way, thanks in large part to ASU's bullpen duo of Taylor Miller and Chris Patterson. Miller and Patterson combined to limit the Catamounts to only a ninth-inning unearned run over the final three stanzas of the ballgame.

Mountaineer starter Matt Andress battled through six innings to earn the win and move to 5-1 on the season. Andress surrendered six runs on 10 hits but struck out seven over 103 pitches to move into a tie for second on ASU's all-time wins list with the 22nd victory of his career.

Nonetheless, the story of the afternoon was the Mountaineer offense. In addition to Stetson's three hits, Hector Crespo, David Towarnicky, Jeremy Dowdy, Chris Alessandria and Doug Jones all added two hits apiece. Eight of ASU's nine starters also scored at least one run in front of a raucous crowd of 772, the second-largest in Smith Stadium history.

Catamount southpaw Vance Chavis was pounded for six runs on nine hits in four innings of work to suffer the loss and fall to 2-3 on the season. Dylan de Graaf led Western with three hits.

Appalachian and Western Carolina continue their weekend series on Saturday at Smith Stadium. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.