BOONE, N.C. — On Appalachian State University baseball's Senior Day, senior Jeffrey Springs pitched into the ninth inning to lead the Mountaineers to a 7-4 victory over UL Lafayette in the rubber match of a three-game Sun Belt Conference series on Sunday afternoon at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

Making the final home start of his Appalachian State career, Springs took a no-hitter into the fifth inning and kept UL Lafayette's high-powered offense at bay for much of the afternoon.

Despite throwing 116 pitches through eight innings, Springs went back out to the mound with a 7-3 lead in the top of the ninth. However, after a walk, a single and a sacrifice fly cut the deficit to 7-4 and inflated Springs' pitch count to 131, the left-hander exited the game to a standing ovation from the Senior Day crowd.

Robert Whaley, another one of the nine Appalachian State seniors honored during a pregame ceremony, replaced Springs and easily retired the only two batters he faced to seal the win and earn his first save of the season.

After UL Lafayette blasted six home runs, recorded 12 extra-base hits and plated 20 runs on Saturday, Springs limited the Ragin' Cajuns to four runs on five hits over 8.1 innings on Sunday. The Cajuns managed only two extra-base hits against the senior southpaw.

While Springs kept UL Lafayette's offense in check, it was Appalachian State (15-34, 7-19 Sun Belt) that provided the fireworks at the plate with 12 hits, including five for extra-bases.

The Mountaineers scored one run in the second inning and two in the third to grab an early 3-0 lead but broke the game wide open with homers by Dillon Dobson and Conner Leonard in a three-run fifth.

Dobson opened the three-run frame with a solo shot to right-center field, his team-leading 11th homer of the season. Two batters later, Leonard followed with a towering two-run blast to left that gave App State a commanding 6-0 advantage.

That would be more than enough for Springs, who surrendered the Cajuns' only runs on a three-run homer by Greg Davis in the sixth and Nick Thurman's sacrifice fly in the ninth. Springs struck out five en route to moving to 4-1 on the season.

The first four hitters in Appalachian State's batting order — Brandon Burris, Dobson, Michael Pierson and Leonard — had two hits apiece and combined to go 8-for-15 with a double, triple, two home runs, five RBI and six runs scored. Brian Bauk also had two hits for App State.

The Mountaineers torched UL Lafayette freshman starter Wyatt Marks for three runs on seven hits in just 3.2 innings to hand Marks (5-1) the first loss of his career.

No batter recorded multiple hits for UL Lafayette (30-17, 14-9 Sun Belt).

With final exams scheduled for this week, Appalachian State does not return to action until it closes Sun Belt play with a three-game series at UT Arlington next weekend. Game times are set for 7:30 p.m. ET Friday, 3 p.m. ET Saturday and 2 p.m. ET Sunday in Arlington, Texas.

NOTES: Appalachian State's Matt Brill doubled in the second inning to reach base for the 18th-consecutive game, good for the longest on-base streak by a Mountaineer this season ... with the 28th home run of his career, Dobson moved into a tie for fifth all-time at Appalachian State with Johnny McCraw (1989-93) and Jerod Faggart (2007-10) ... the Mountaineers won on Senior Day for the third-straight year ... the last time App State lost on Senior Day was in 2012, when it fell to UNC Greensboro, 10-7, but went on to win the Southern Conference championship ... Appalachian State moved to 3-0 all-time in series against teams from the baseball-rich state of Louisiana ... in addition to this year's Sun Belt series victories over UL Monroe and UL Lafayette, the Mountaineers also took 2-of-3 games at No. 7 LSU in 2012 ... as part of Sunday's Senior Day ceremonies, Appalachian State interim provost Dr. Stan Aeschleman conferred degrees to Burris, Pierson and Noah Holmes, who will miss their graduation ceremonies next weekend due to the Mountaineers' series at UTA.