Box Score BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University baseball scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning but was kept off the board the rest of the way in a 4-3 loss to UT Arlington on Friday evening at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.

A solo home run by Matt Vernon and a two-out, two-run double by Grayson Atwood gave Appalachian State (15-34, 9-19 Sun Belt) a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

After Atwood's first-inning double, UT Arlington starter Kadon Simmons settled in to retire 17 batters in a row. While Simmons mowed through App State's lineup twice, his offense scored three runs in the top of the second inning and one in the fifth to give UTA a 4-3 advantage.

Atwood broke up the string of 17-straight retired Mountaineers when he doubled again with one out in the bottom of the seventh. However, that began a frustrating late-inning pattern for Appalachian State, which stranded four runners in scoring position over the final three stanzas of the ballgame.

The closest that the Mountaineers came to tying it up came two batters after Atwood's one-out double in the seventh. Chandler Seagle ripped an 0-1 pitch from Simmons to the left side but UTA shortstop Josh Minjarez ranged quickly to his right and made a terrific catch in the hole to prevent Seagle's line drive from going into left field for the would-be game-tying hit.

App State put another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth when Vernon singled to left field with two outs and UTA left fielder Quintin Rohrbaugh let the ball skip past him and go all the way to the wall. Vernon reached third on Rohrbaugh's two-base error but Simmons collected his fourth and final strikeout of the game to end the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, back-to-back singles by Colin Schmid and Atwood put the winning run on base with one out. Both runners moved into scoring position on a groundout by Tanner Mann-Fix but UTA closer Jacob Moreland got Seagle to ground out to first to end the game.

Atwood (3-for-4, two doubles, two RBI), Vernon (2-for-4, home run, RBI) and Schmid (2-for-4) combined for seven of Appalachian State's eight hits. Vernon's homer in the first inning was his team-best sixth of the season and extended his hitting streak to 11 games, which matches the longest by a Mountaineer this season. Vernon also had an 11-game hitting streak from March 26-April 15.

Dallas DeVrieze surrendered just one run and struck out four in 4.1 innings of terrific relief but suffered the tough-luck loss to fall to 1-1 on the season.

Simmons (9-4) allowed three runs on seven hits in 8.1 innings of work to pick up the win. Moreland recorded the final two outs for his fourth save. Rohrbaugh, Matt McLean and Colton Turner each went 3-for-5 to account for nine of UT Arlington's 13 hits. Turner hit what proved to be the game-winning homer off DeVrieze in the fifth.

App State fell to 15-27 since the beginning of the 2014 season in one-run games.

The second game of this weekend's three-game series between the Mountaineers and Mavericks is set for 3 p.m. Saturday at Smith Stadium.