BOONE, N.C. — With its biggest offensive outburst in a decade, Appalachian State Baseball posted its highest-ever run total in Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium during a 24-3 home victory against Gardner-Webb on Saturday.
The record-setting win completed the rain-shortened weekend series with the Runnin' Bulldogs, who started Saturday's doubleheader with a 12-3 victory.
Appalachian (3-6) closed the doubleheader with 23 hits, including four apiece from
Luke Drumheller and
Robbie Young, while amassing as many as 24 runs for the first time since a 24-4 road victory against Furman in 2009.
The program record for single-game runs is 26, set during a road win against Elon in 2008, and the Mountaineers' previous high for runs at their 12-year-old stadium was 23 against UNC-Asheville in 2008. Their 23-2 victory at Davidson in 2007 was their last win by at least 21 runs.
"I think everyone just stuck to (hitting) coach (Erik) Lunde's plan, and we were all seeing the ball well," Drumheller said. "It was great to see the bats explode the way they did."
On the mound, App State starter
Tyler Tuthill (2-1) allowed no runs and just one hit (off a leaping infielder's glove) through five innings. He finished with three earned runs allowed and three strikeouts in seven innings, as
Austin Primm and
Jack Hartman didn't allow any hits over two scoreless innings of relief against the Runnin' Bulldogs (6-2).
The Mountaineers turned two double plays defensively in an error-free game, recorded seven extra-base hits and had 12 players post at least one hit. They led 1-0 before blowing the game open with a three-run third and five-run fourth. App State added two runs in the fifth, two in the sixth, five in the seventh and six in the eighth —
Bret Baldwin could have circled the bases on an outfield error that let the ball roll to the wall, but he was stopped at third by assistant coach
Britt Johnson.
Young reached base in all six plate appearances during his 4-for-4 night that included a walk, a hit by pitch and four runs scored. Drumheller was 4-for-5 with three RBIs, two runs and one walk, designated hitter
Dalton Williams went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, three runs and two walks in his first start and
Hayden Cross went 2-for-4 with three RBIs in his first start at catcher.
Center fielder
Tyler Leek went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, three runs scored and a triple in his first start,
Phillip Cole also scored three runs,
Luke Allison was 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs in his third straight start at third base and
Bailey Welch went 2-for-5 with two runs.
Kendall McGowan also contributed a triple and scored twice.
In the series opener, Allison and
Riley Smith had two hits apiece. Smith scored twice, and Welch produced two RBIs.
Gardner-Webb scored four times in the third inning and three times in the fifth inning, with only four of those seven runs being earned. The Runnin' Bulldogs had two runners on with a 1-0 lead in the third inning when a line drive to the outfield turned from a potential diving catch for the third out into a 4-0 advantage for the visitors, as Chandler Redmond officially recorded a two-run triple and raced home on a mishandled relay throw.
The Mountaineers head to Florida on Monday in preparation for a Tuesday night game at Florida Atlantic (5-6) and a Wednesday night game at Miami (7-2).
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
