CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Appalachian State Baseball's three-game series against Gardner-Webb starts Friday with the program's annual visit to BB&T Ballpark in uptown Charlotte.
App State will be the home team for the series opener, which begins at 7:05 p.m. in the Triple A Charlotte Knights' stadium. The rest of the three-game weekend series will be played in Boone, with Saturday's first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.
Friday's game is part of the 2019 Sunbelt Rentals Collegiate Baseball Series, with an online stream of the action available at AppVision, and gates are scheduled to open at 6 p.m.
App State alumni and fans are invited to attend a pregame social event at Murphy's Kitchen & Tap, which is a short walk away from BB&T Ballpark. There are
available parking lots and parking decks near the ballpark area with evening parking rates — usually after 5 p.m.
In the concourse area of BB&T Ballpark, fans will have an opportunity to take pictures with both the Sun Belt Conference Championship and R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl trophies from the 2018 football season. Among the items available for in-stadium purchase Friday are football season tickets, baseball season tickets, baseball single-game tickets and App State Baseball merchandise.
To purchase tickets for Friday's game in Charlotte, with Home Plate Club tickets available for $15 and Field Box tickets available for $10,
click HERE.
The first pitch is scheduled to be thrown out by Jim Morris, who won 611 games and coached six All-Americans during his 25 seasons as App State's baseball coach from 1974-98.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
PREVIEWING THE MATCHUP
As the home team against Gardner-Webb (5-1), App State (2-5) will be participating in a game at BB&T Ballpark for the fourth straight year.
2018: L, 8-1, vs. Gardner-Webb
2017: W, 9-5, vs. N.C. Central
2016: L, 10-7, vs. Wake Forest
Appalachian has won 26 of its 43 games against Gardner-Webb in a series that dates back to 1977. Last season, the Mountaineers built a 4-0 lead and used a three-run sixth to move ahead 7-3 in an 8-4 win at Gardner-Webb, where
Alex Leshock went 3-for-6 with an RBI triple, three runs scored and one steal.
In Charlotte,
CJ Brown hit a solo homer, but Gardner-Webb pulled away with a five-run sixth inning.
RECAPPING THIS WEEK
South Carolina improved to 7-1 with a 3-1 home win against App State on Tuesday. The Mountaineers took a lead two batters into the game, as
Luke Drumheller followed
Bailey Welch's infield single with an RBI double, but South Carolina tied the game on a solo homer in the second inning and moved ahead on an RBI double in the third. The score remained 2-1 until the eighth inning.
BREAKING DOWN THE ROSTER
App State welcomes 17 newcomers and returns 16 letterwinners, including seven position players who were 2018 starters, three pitchers who started multiple games in 2018 and two of its top three relievers.
With freshmen
Alex Leshock,
Bailey Welch and
Kendall McGowan accounting for the top three batting averages last season, Appalachian went 10-9 over the final month of the season. In all, seven of the team's top eight hitters from last season are back.
The team's 8-7 record over its last 15 games in the Sun Belt Conference (No. 8 RPI among 31 leagues) coincided with then-freshman
Will Sprinkle's move into the weekend rotation. That finish included a series win at ULM, a road sweep of UT-Arlington and a Senior Day win against No. 16 Coastal Carolina.
PROJECTING THE WEEKEND
Will Sprinkle, who ranked second on the team with a 2.96 ERA last season, is the probable Game 1 starter against Gardner-Webb. He had a 2-1 record in his five Sun Belt starts last season with road wins against ULM (4-1) and UTA (6-4). He left with a lead with two away in the fifth inning of an 11-7 victory against Coastal Carolina to close the season.
Sprinkle took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of his last start, a 5-2 weekend win against Manhattan, and finished with two runs allowed (one earned) on two hits over seven innings. During opening weekend at Tennessee, Sprinkle held the Volunteers' offense in check through five innings, allowing a single run on a third-inning sacrifice fly.
Left-handed freshman
Tyler Tuthill, who is from Clayton, N.C., is the projected Game 2 starter. Tuthill picked up his first career win by allowing three earned runs in six innings and striking out six batters in a 14-5 victory vs. Manhattan. In his college debut at Tennessee, Tuthill finished with five strikeouts and one run allowed on two hits in four innings.
The projected Game 3 starter is sophomore right-hander
Cameron Kepley, who made two starts in 2018 and had 29 strikeouts in 27.2 innings. Kepley allowed three runs on four hits while striking out four batters in six innings at Tennessee, and he gave up two earned runs in three innings against Manhattan.
HITTING THEIR STRIDE
After opening the year with a series against a Tennessee team that is 9-0 with six shutouts and five total runs allowed, App State's bats came alive vs. Manhattan.
The Mountaineers led 5-0 in the series opener and used a nine-run fourth inning in the 14-5 victory to post their highest single-game run total since 2015.
Joel McDaniel hit a pair of two-run homers in the same inning,
Phillip Cole hit the first two homers of his college career and App State finished with 17 hits.
According to the @AppStateSportsAnalytics account on Twitter, Cole's homers traveled 417 and 388 feet. McDaniel's homers went 414 and 376 feet, with the second blast possessing an exit velocity of 108 mph.
MAKING MORE HISTORY
For the second straight year, App State has set a program record for season tickets sold. Last year, a 2013 ticket record set following an NCAA Regional run was broken, and that total has been topped for 2019.
CONNECTING THE COACHES
Rusty Stroupe, who is in his 17th season as Gardner-Webb's coach, played at App State from 1983-86 and helped the Mountaineers make NCAA appearances in 1984 and 1986. He worked as an Appalachian State assistant in 1990 and was Lander's head coach from 1997-2002.
Kermit Smith and Stroupe are first and second, respectively, on Lander's all-time wins list. After posting a 229-225-1 record in eight seasons at Belmont Abbey, Smith was hired at Lander in the summer of 2009 and had a 244-134 record in seven seasons. He made a combined three Division II World Series appearances at Belmont Abbey and Lander before arriving at App State before the 2017 season.
ASSESSING THE BULLPEN
App State moves forward without 2018 closer
Luke Watts, who had a team-leading 2.29 ERA in 30 appearances, but the Mountaineers bring back right-handers
Kaleb Bowman,
Andrew Papp and
Jason Cornatzer.
Bowman had a 2-0 record last season and ranked second on the team (sixth among Sun Belt pitchers during the regular season) with 25 appearances. In his best 19 combined outings, he had an ERA of 0.88 with 36 strikeouts and just three earned runs allowed over 30.2 innings.
Papp ranked third on the 2018 team with a 3.29 ERA and had a 1-0 record with one save in 15 appearances. Cornatzer ranked fourth on the team with a 3.55 ERA in nine appearances as a freshman.
Papp has appeared in five of App State's seven games, and he struck out the side during a perfect inning at South Carolina to give him a 3.00 ERA with nine strikeouts in six innings this year. Bowman has a 3.60 ERA with four strikeouts over five innings in four appearances, including his first career save against Manhattan, and Cornatzer allowed one run over a two-inning appearance.
Jack Hartman (two innings over two games),
Cam Roberts (three innings over two appearances) and
Evan Mauldin (one inning) haven't allowed a run.
