DECATUR, Ga. — Kendall McGowan's RBI single in the top of the 10th inning Saturday brought home
Riley Smith, who had delivered a leadoff double, and helped lift Appalachian State to a 4-3 victory that evened the Mountaineers' three-game Sun Belt Conference series at Georgia State.
Luke Watts, who took the mound with one out and two runners on in the eighth inning, pitched the final 2.2 innings and recorded the win. He capped a perfect 10th with a strikeout, giving App State its first extra-inning victory since a 2015 win in 10 innings at South Alabama.
CJ Brown's RBI line drive for a fielder's choice off the shortstop's glove scored
Joel McDaniel with a go-ahead run in the top of the ninth inning, and the Panthers answered back with a game-tying single in the bottom of the ninth. After an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out, Watts induced a double-play groundout with the infield drawn in.
First baseman
Conner Leonard fielded a one-hopper and threw home to Smith, who fired the ball back to Leonard at first.
Smith, who picked a runner off first base and erased a steal attempt with two away in the first and second innings, began the 10th with a hard-hit ball that bounced over the third baseman's glove as he turned to his left. A wild pitch moved Smith to third before he scored on McGowan's single up the middle past a drawn-in infield.
Watts and
Kaleb Bowman pitched in relief of starter
Andrew Vaccacio, who allowed one run on three hits and struck out five batters in five innings. He had allowed only one hit – a second-inning homer that followed McDaniel's solo homer in the top half of the same inning — before giving up back-to-back hits with two away in the fifth.
App State (17-32, 8-18) had moved ahead 2-1 on Brown's two-out RBI single earlier in the fifth to score
Drew Beck, who opened the inning with a double, and Vaccacio finished his outing with a lead after inducing a groundout to second baseman
Bailey Welch with two runners on.
The Panthers (24-26, 8-17) pulled even with a seventh-inning homer off Bowman, who retired six of the seven batters he faced in his first two innings of work. After an intentional walk put two Georgia State players on base with one out in the eighth, Watts entered the game and struck out cleanup hitter Will Kilgore. A walk to Ryan Glass loaded the bases before McDaniel, the shortstop, fielded a ball moving to his right and threw to Beck at third for the forceout.
Offensively,
Alex Leshock went 2-for-4 and stole two bases in his second multi-hit game of the series, and Brown extended his hitting streak to 16 games.
App State, which trails Georgia State by a half-game in the Sun Belt standings, will attempt to win the series when the teams meet again Sunday at 1 p.m.
