SPARTANBURG, S.C. — On the strength of three home runs and a whopping 12 RBI during a two-game span, Appalachian State University baseball's Dillon Dobson was named the Southern Conference Player of the Week by the SoCon office on Monday.
Dobson hit .368 (7-for-19) over four games last week but did the majority of his damage during the first two contests of Appalachian State's SoCon series at Wofford, going 6-for-11 with the three homers and 12 RBI during the torrid two-game stretch.
In Friday's 12-5 series-opening win, Dobson went 3-for-5 with two homers and five RBI. The five RBI were a career high and tied for Appalachian's highest single-game RBI total of the season. However, those superlatives wouldn't last long because, as good as Friday's performance was, Dobson topped it less than 24 hours later, when he went 3-for-6 with a grand slam, double and seven RBI in Saturday's 13-4 Appalachian State triumph. The seven RBI were the most by a Mountaineer in a single-game since Issac Harrow drove in seven runs against UNCG on May 9, 2009.
Dobson capped his impressive week by going 1-for-4 with a walk in Sunday's series finale.
The SoCon weekly award is the first of Dobson's career and the first presented to a Mountaineer this season. Appalachian State's sophomore shortstop is hitting .288 and leads the club with six home runs and 24 RBI on the campaign.
Dobson and the Mountaineers open a four-game homestand on Tuesday versus High Point. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Appalachian State's Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
APPALACHIAN STATE BASEBALL (11-18) vs. High Point (18-13)
Tuesday, April 8 • 6 p.m. • Boone, N.C. (Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium) |
| App State Probable Starting Pitcher |
High Point Probable Starting Pitcher |
| Fr. RHP Sean Mason (0-1, 4.15 ERA) |
Fr. RHP Peter Ripke (1-0, 2.18 ERA) |
NOTING TUESDAY'S MATCHUP
• Tuesday's game pits a pair of hot teams — Appalachian State has won five of its last seven games while High Point has won six of its last eight.
• The first meeting of the season — scheduled for March 25 at HPU — was washed out by rain and will not be made up.
• After hitting just .165 as a team and averaging 2.6 runs per game over the first 11 games of the season, Appalachian State's offense has exploded over the past 18 contests, hitting .287 as a club and averaging 6.5 runs per contest over its last 18 contests.
• True freshman Sean Mason makes his third start of the season for the Mountaineers. In his last start, Mason tossed a complete game against No. 14 Clemson on March 12, allowing just two runs on four hits but coming up on the tough-luck end of a 2-1 loss.
• Appalachian State has won 12 of its last 14 games against High Point, including all four meetings between the two clubs over the past two seasons.
