BOONE, N.C. — Fresh off a 3-0 home shutout of Texas State on Sunday, Appalachian State plays host to a Power Five program in Wake Forest on Tuesday.
First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. in Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium, and tickets can be purchased online by clicking HERE. The game will also be available on AppVision.
Wake Forest has a 44-14 lead in a series that dates back to 1970. App State's last win in the series was a 10-1 victory in Winston-Salem early in the 2015 season, as Wake Forest has won seven straight in the series.
On March 12, Wake Forest won 5-4 with a tiebreaking run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Kendall McGowan and Bailey Welch hit homers in the sixth, and Luke Drumheller's RBI in the seventh tied it.
Since winning 10-5 at home against Wake Forest in 2010, App State has dropped three straight home games against the Demon Deacons: 5-4 in 2017, 15-9 in 2016 and 11-8 in 2015.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
TAKING THE MOUND
App State's probable starter is Cameron Kepley, who was the team's Sunday starter for the first month of the season. He has 43 strikeouts in 44.2 career innings, including 14 strikeouts in 17.0 innings this season. Wake Forest's probable starter is right-handed freshman Ryan Cusick (3-1, 6.52 ERA with five starts, including one in the first meeting with App State).
Kepley allowed three runs on four hits while striking out four batters in six innings at Tennessee to open this season. He also started against Manhattan, Miami (on a Wednesday after a Sunday with no game), Michigan State and Georgia State after starting in two of his 14 appearances as a freshman in 2018.
RECAPPING THE WEEKEND
After losing 8-3 and 5-4, App State closed its series with top-55 RPI foe Texas State by winning 3-0 with a five-hit shutout thrown by Brandon Boone (5.0 IP), Jack Hartman (2.0 IP) and Kaleb Bowman (2.0 IP).
The Mountaineers got two-out RBIs in the second inning (Joel McDaniel homer) and fifth inning (singles by Alex Leshock, Luke Drumheller) while posting their first home shutout in league play since 2015.
FACING TOUGH COMPETITION
App State has played six games vs. Power Five foes who are a combined 71-43: Tennessee (21-8), South Carolina (17-11), Miami (18-10) and Wake Forest (15-14).
Appalachian won on the road against a league-leading FAU team that is 19-9 with four NCAA regional appearances in the last six seasons.
BEATING THE DRUM
Freshman second baseman Luke Drumheller, who has hit safely in 21 of his last 22 games, leads the Sun Belt in batting average (.409, No. 29 nationally) while also ranking second in hits per game (1.58, No. 34 nationally), third in total hits (38), third in doubles (10, No. 48 nationally) and fourth in RBIs (27).
Drumheller broke a school and Sun Belt record on March 10 with a five-double game, which was voted the national Performance of the Week by the Golden Spikes Award. He became just the seventh Division I player to hit five doubles in a game and the first since Western Carolina's Aaron Attaway in 2012.
MAKING SOLID CONTACT
Shortstop Joel McDaniel started the last two games of the Texas State series and batted 4-for-7 with four RBIs, including an RBI double over the center fielder's head in Game 2 and a tiebreaking solo home run in Game 3.
McDaniel, who had only one swing and miss in those seven at-bats, averaged a 102 mph exit velocity on the balls he put in play with measurements of 109, 108, 105, 103, 100 (Game 3 homer), 96 (Game 2 double) and 91 mph, according to the @AppStSportsData account on Twitter.
