MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — College of Charleston's Rob Kral broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning with a two-out, two-run triple and Appalachian State University baseball went on to drop Friday's Southern Conference series opener to Charleston, 7-4, at Patriots Point Park.

With the setback, Appalachian (28-22, 12-13 SoCon) has lost three-straight games for the first time since March 13-18 but remains in sixth place in the SoCon standings, four games ahead of The Citadel and Wofford, who are tied for ninth with five regular-season games left to play. The league's top eight teams qualify for the SoCon Tournament, which begins a week from Wednesday in Charleston.

ASU and College of Charleston (33-17, 16-9 SoCon) were locked in a back-and-forth affair for much of the ballgame, with the lead changing hands three times in the first five innings.

After the Mountaineers grabbed a 4-3 advantage on Daniel Kassouf's RBI double down the left-field line in the top of the fifth inning, the Cougars knotted it the ballgame at 4-4 in the bottom of the frame on Jose Rodriguez's sacrifice fly to left.

The score was still 4-4 in the bottom of the sixth when ASU starter Ryan Arrowood allowed back-to-back singles to Charleston's No. 8 and 9 hitters to put runners on first and second with one out. Arrowood got C of C leadoff hitter Marty Gantt to fly out to center field and was one strike away from getting out of the inning when Kral laced a 3-2 pitch up the first-base line, past diving first baseman Trey Holmes and all the way into the right-field corner. Rob Harding and Jamie Holler easily scored to make it 6-4 and, to make matters worse, Hector Crespo's relay throw to try to cut down Kral at third skipped past ASU third baseman Zack Briggs and Kral scored on the error to stretch the advantage to 7-4.

Appalachian only had one baserunner the rest of the way and was erased on a double play in the eighth.

Arrowood had an uncharacteristically sub-par outing, giving up a season-high seven runs on nine hits and walking three to suffer the loss and fall to 7-2 on the season. After issuing just 14 walks over his first 15 appearances of the season, the right-handed junior has walked eight batters in his last two starts.

Kassouf (2-for-4, double, RBI) and Crespo (2-for-3, two runs) led ASU offensively. Just one game after his 18-game overall hitting streak came to an end, Jack Myers' 27-game hitting streak in SoCon games was snapped with an 0-for-3 evening at the plate.

Holler, Matt Leeds and Bran Murray paced Charleston's 10-hit attack with two apiece. C of C starter Josh Renfro (8-2) earned the win by limiting the Mountaineers to four runs (three earned) on five hits over seven innings.

The clubs continue their three-game weekend series on Saturday. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at Patriots Point.