As has become a summer tradition, appstatesports.com is counting down Appalachian State University athletics' 30 most memorable games, matches and meets from the 2014-15 academic year. This year's countdown begins on Monday, July 6 and will continue until Tuesday, August 4, the opening day of Appalachian State football's fall camp.

Be sure to check appstatesports.com each day to relive all of the Mountaineers' most lasting memories of an exciting and successful 2014-15.

Behind Thurber, App State Snaps Cajuns' Win Streak

May 1, 2015

BOONE, N.C. — In perhaps the most impressive outing of his all-America caliber season, Appalachian State University's Taylor Thurber recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts and needed only 112 pitches to go the distance in a 2-1 victory over UL Lafayette on Friday evening at chilly Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

Thurber carved up the Sun Belt Conference's top-scoring offense, limiting UL Lafayette to just one run on five hits without issuing a walk. He threw 83 of his 112 pitches for strikes and struck out eight of the nine batters in the Ragin' Cajuns' starting lineup at least once. His 11 strikeouts topped the previous career high of 10 that he tallied in his last home start versus first-place Georgia State on April 17.  

Behind its senior ace, Appalachian State (14-33, 6-18 Sun Belt) snapped the Cajuns' seven-game winning streak, which was tied for the longest in the Sun Belt this season, and prevented UL Lafayette (29-16, 13-8 Sun Belt) from collecting its 30th win of the campaign.

Thurber's lone mistake of the ballgame came in the first inning. After fanning the first two batters of the game, the right-hander hung a 1-1 pitch to UL Lafayette home run leader Stefan Trosclair and Trosclair ripped it over the left-center field wall for his 11th dinger of the season to give the Ragin' Cajuns an early 1-0 lead.  

Thurber worked his way around a pair of two-out singles in the second and settled in from there, retiring 15 of the Cajuns' next 17 batters. The only UL Lafayette hitters that reached base during that stretch did so on an infield single and an error.

While Thurber was mowing down the Ragin' Cajuns' high-powered lineup, Appalachian State took a 2-1 lead on Brandon Burris' solo homer in the third inning and Dillon Dobson's RBI double in the fifth.

Thurber ran into his only real trouble of the ballgame in the seventh inning. With the Mountaineers clinging to their 2-1 advantage, shortstop Michael Pierson made a throwing error that allowed a runner to reach base with one out. After a strikeout, UL Lafayette's Evan Powell lined a double off the wall in left field and the Cajuns had runners on second and third with two outs. However, Thurber squelched the threat by getting pinch-hitter Brenn Conrad to ground out to second to end the inning.

Thurber easily retired the next five batters he faced but Pierson made his second throwing error of the evening with two outs in the top of the ninth, which allowed the tying run to reach base.

For a team that has squandered three ninth-inning leads in conference play this season, the error could have signaled another late-game collapse. However, Thurber was undeterred and induced a routine groundout to second base to end the game.

The complete game was Thurber's third of the season and marked the fourth time that he threw at least nine innings in a contest this year (he also worked nine frames in the Mountaineers' eventual 4-3, 12-inning loss to Georgia State two Fridays ago).

With the 11-strikeout, no-walk performance, he upped his incredible strikeout-to-walk ratio to 10-to-1 this season (70 strikeouts, seven walks). He also lowered his ERA to 2.36 and his opponents' batting average to .215. Despite the spectacular numbers, the senior only moved to 4-8 on the campaign with Friday's win.

Offensively, Appalachian State managed only seven hits against Leger (5-3) but the freshman southpaw suffered a tough-luck loss despite striking out six, walking none and surrendering just one earned run in 7.2 innings of work.

The top of the order did the majority of the damage for the Mountaineers, with their first five hitters — Burris, Dobson, Pierson, Conner Leonard and Matt Brill — combining for six of the club's seven hits. Brill reached base for the 16th-consecutive game with a fourth-inning single.

Conversely, the first six batters in UL Lafayette's order combined to go 1-for-24. Leadoff man Blake Trahan, the Sun Belt's second-leading hitter with a .365 batting average coming into the game, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

Thanks in large part to no walks in 70 total plate appearances, the contest took only 2:02 to play, which was Appalachian State's second-fastest game of the season (its 4-0 loss at Georgia on March 11 was played in 1:55).  

Appalachian State and UL Lafayette continue their three-game Sun Belt series on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Smith Stadium.

No. 30: Baseball 5, ETSU 4 (May 12, 2015) 
No. 29: Softball 14, Georgia State 5 (April 12, 2015)
No. 28: Women's Tennis 5, North Carolina Central 1 (February 22, 2015)
No. 27: Field Hockey 5, Pacific 4 (October 25, 2014)
No. 26: Men's Tennis 7, Georgia Southern 0 (March 17, 2015)
No. 25: Men's Basketball 74, Arkansas State 73 (January 3, 2015)
No. 24: Volleyball 3, Troy 2 (September 21, 2014)
No. 23: Women's Soccer 3, Troy 2 – 2 OT (October 10, 2014)
No. 22: Men's Soccer 1, NJIT 0 (November 13, 2014)
No. 21: Mike Longo Wins SoCon Championship at 141-weight class (March 7, 2015)
No. 20: Football 45, Idaho 28 (November 29, 2014)
No. 19: Softball 5, Pittsburgh 2 (February 20, 2015) 
No. 18: Baseball 9, No. 16 Maryland 7 (February 28, 2015)
No. 17: Volleyball 3, Tennessee 0 (August 30, 2014)
No. 16: Baseball 2, UL Lafayette 1 (May 1, 2015)