MOBILE, Ala. — Appalachian State opened its Sun Belt Conference baseball series at South Alabama with a 9-1 loss on Friday night.
The series concludes Saturday with a doubleheader that begins at 11:30 a.m. ET.
South Alabama scored four times in the bottom of the first inning Friday, and App State responded with a run that followed back-to-back singles from
Drew Beck and
CJ Brown in the second inning. Beck came home on a double-play groundout.
Alex Leshock and
Jason Avers produced the other hits for the Mountaineers (6-17, 0-7).
Appalachian pitchers
Colin Schmid,
Tristan Helms,
Reed Howell and
Jason Cornatzer combined for 10 strikeouts against the Jaguars, who moved ahead 6-1 with a two-run fourth.
Of the 10 batters retired by Schmid, six came on strikeouts, but South Alabama drew seven walks against App State's normal Saturday starter. Howell and Cornatzer both had two strikeouts apiece, as Cornatzer allowed one earned run in three innings.
South Alabama (14-11, 4-2) struck first, as a one-out single preceded three consecutive walks. Carter Perkins' RBI single gave the Jaguars a 2-0 lead, and Schmid recorded a 3-2 strikeout with the bases loaded before running the count to 1-2 against Hunter Stokes. He doubled down the left-field line to bring in two more runs.
