Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University baseball scored 16 runs and banged out 27 hits in a doubleheader split with Arkansas State on Friday at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium. Arkansas State won the opener, 9-7, but Appalachian State rebounded for a decisive 9-2 victory in the nightcap.

Appalachian State (12-31, 7-16 Sun Belt) slugged its way to 14 hits in Game 1 and 13 hits in Game 2. Eleven of the Mountaineers' 27 hits went for extra bases (six doubles, a triple and four home runs). Freshman Tanner Mann-Fix and junior Matt Vernon led the offensive outburst with the duo combining to go 11-for-18 with two doubles, a triple, four home runs, 10 RBI and six runs scored over the course of the doubleheader.

App State also received solid starting pitching in both contests. Freshman Bobby Hampton allowed three earned runs on four hits over five innings in the opener while fellow freshman Breydan Gorham limited A-State to one run on three hits over seven innings in the nightcap.

Relief pitching in Game 1 proved to be the difference between a split and an Appalachian State sweep.

After the Mountaineers took a 6-4 lead in the second inning of the opener, Arkansas State reliever Tyler Zuber (4-3) came on and limited App State to one run over the final 7.1 innings of the game. Meanwhile, after Hampton departed the game in the sixth with the 6-4 advantage still intact, Appalachian's bullpen surrendered five runs in four innings, which allowed the Red Wolves to rally for the victory.

In the nightcap, Appalachian State battered A-State's pitching throughout the ballgame. The Mountaineers scored one run in the second inning, four in the fourth, one in the fifth, one in the sixth and two in the eighth to match their largest winning margin ever in a Sun Belt Conference game (App State beat UL Monroe, 7-0, on March 20 of last season).

Gorham (2-4) struck out four in Game 2 and needed only 101 pitches to cruise through a career-high-tying seven innings. Luke Watts closed it out with two innings of one-run relief.

Despite the sterling pitching in the nightcap, the story of the day for App State was its prolific offense, headlined by Mann-Fix and Vernon. Mann-Fix went 4-for-4 with two doubles, a home run, two RBI and two runs scored in the opener and was 2-for-4 with a triple, home run, RBI and two runs in the nightcap. Vernon finished 2-for-5 with a three-run homer in Game 1 and went 3-for-4 with another three-run blast and four total RBI in Game 2.

Tanner Ring had two hits in each game for Arkansas State (20-22, 9-14 Sun Belt), which had a six-game winning streak snapped with its defeat in the nightcap.

The rubber match of the rain-condensed three-game Sun Belt series has been moved to 1 p.m. Saturday at Smith Stadium.