BOONE, N.C. — Luke Drumheller delivered a tying home run in the first inning, and
Luke Allison hit a two-run homer to give Appalachian State a second-inning lead, but Texas State's own power surge contributed to an 8-3 road win for the Bobcats on Friday night.
The Mountaineers (10-14, 3-4) trailed 5-3 before Texas State (17-9, 4-2) gained separation with a three-run ninth. The Sun Belt Conference series at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium resumes Saturday at 1 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 11 a.m.
Drumheller and Allison produced the first homers of their Division I careers, but Texas State's three homers included two from Skyler Valentine, whose two-run homer in the fifth inning gave the Bobcats a 4-3 advantage. He added a solo homer in the seventh inning to increase the margin to two runs.
In the top of the first inning, Jaxon Williams also homered for Texas State, which totaled 15 hits and left 12 runners on base against the mound trio of
Will Sprinkle,
Kaleb Bowman and
Jason Cornatzer.
App State held a 3-2 lead through four innings with Sprinkle stranding seven baserunners, and Bowman entered the game after Valentine's first homer of the night. Bowman allowed one run in 3.2 innings and struck out five batters, including one with the bases loaded and two away in the eighth inning.
Drumheller's solo homer to right in the first inning traveled 387 feet and had an exit velocity of 99 mph, according to the
@AppStSportsData account on Twitter. After Texas State regained the lead with a second-inning sacrifice fly,
Robbie Young had a 105-mph exit velocity on a one-out single in the bottom half of the inning. Allison followed that with a two-run shot that traveled 403 feet with an exit velocity of 98 mph.
Drumheller accounted for two of the Mountaineers' five hits while raising his league-leading average to .424.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
