BOONE, N.C. — After playing nine of its last 10 games at home, Appalachian State (15-18, 7-7 Sun Belt) hits the road Tuesday for a midweek matchup at East Tennessee State (25-10, 6-3 SoCon) before continuing on to Troy for a Sun Belt road series that begins Thursday.
Heading into their 137th meeting, App State holds a 78-57-1 lead in a series that dates back to 1955. Since the Mountaineers left the Southern Conference and joined the Sun Belt, they are 2-2 against the Bucs, including 1-1 during head coach
Kermit Smith's debut season in 2017. Avery Jackson's walk-off homer gave App State an 8-7 home win in the last meeting, which occurred on April 25, 2017.
There will be no live stream or audio available for Tuesday's game. Live stats will be
available here, and fans can also follow @AppBaseball on Twitter for real-time updates.
The probable mound starters are App State's
Cameron Kepley and ETSU's Colby Stuart.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
SIZING UP THE TEAMS
With freshman
Luke Drumheller leading the league in hitting (.392) and senior reliever
Kaleb Bowman leading the league in ERA (1.46), App State is .500 in the Sun Belt for the first time ever after March. The Mountaineers are currently third in the Eastern Division, just one game behind first-place Coastal Carolina, and they're 15-14 in their last 29 league games (a full Sun Belt regular season is normally 30 games).
Bowman's ERA ranks No. 2 nationally among pitchers with at least 17 appearances, behind just a 1.40 ERA from San Diego State's Adrian Mardueno, and Drumheller's average is No. 2 nationally among freshmen behind just the .453 mark from UIC catcher Ryan Hampe, who has played in only 22 games.
The Mountaineers won both weekend games against ULM, overcoming a 2-0 deficit in a 3-2 win Friday. They turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead and an 8-5 deficit into a 10-8 win Saturday thanks to five-run rallies in the sixth and eighth innings. In each win,
Joel McDaniel homered and Bowman recorded a save.
ETSU's hot start includes wins vs. common opponents Georgia State (two of three), Tennessee and Radford.
STARTING ON THE RIGHT FOOT
Freshman
Austin Primm has started two of App State's last three midweek games, including last week's 8-2 win at UNC Asheville. Sunday starter
Brandon Boone was a midweek starter last season and the first month of this year, while sophomore
Cameron Kepley made midweek starts against Miami and Wake Forest after beginning the season as the team's Sunday starter.
App State's 3-5 midweek record includes a 6-3 win at FAU, which is 12-3 in Conference USA and 24-11 overall with four NCAA regional appearances in the last six seasons, and a 13-0 win against N.C. Central.
BEATING THE DRUM
Freshman infielder
Luke Drumheller, who has hit safely in 25 of his last 27 games, leads the Sun Belt in average (.392, No. 45 nationally) while also ranking second in hits per game (1.52, No. 48 nationally), second in doubles (13, No. 48 nationally) and seventh in RBIs (32, or second in the league at 1.03 per game).
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.
CALLING ON KALEB
Senior
Kaleb Bowman's fingerprints are all over App State's wins this season, as he is 4-0 with four saves and a league-leading 1.46 ERA in 17 appearances.
The second-best overall ERA for qualifying Sun Belt Conference pitchers is 2.29, and Bowman's ERA of 0.48 in eight league appearances also leads the Sun Belt, with a 1.08 mark ranking second in conference play.
Bowman totaled 5.2 scoreless innings last week and increased his streak of consecutive scoreless innings to 12.0 by picking up back-to-back saves against ULM after he improved to 6-0 in his two-year Appalachian State career with 2.2 scoreless innings in an 8-2 victory at UNC Asheville. The Bulldogs had a 2-0 lead and two runners in scoring position when Bowman took the mound in the second inning, and App State scored seven two-out runs in the third.
Bowman threw a combined five innings of scoreless relief as he picked up two wins in the series at Louisiana. He had five strikeouts over three innings in a victory at FAU and earned his first win of the season against Michigan State by striking out four batters over four scoreless innings.
KEEPING UP WITH KENDALL
In Sun Belt games, sophomore outfielder
Kendall McGowan ranks No. 8 in the league with a .368 batting average, which has helped his season-long average rise to .299. In his last seven games, he's 12-for-26 (.462) with five runs scored.
Because of lower-body injuries in 2018, McGowan (successfully) attempted just one steal last season. After stealing 22 bases over the summer while playing in the Coastal Plain League, he has nine steals already this season.
MAKING SOLID CONTACT
Shortstop
Joel McDaniel has started the last nine games, beginning with the last two games of the Texas State series, and he's hit 12-for-32 (.375) with three homers and five multi-hit games in those nine appearances.
McDaniel had a go-ahead, two-run single last week at UNC Asheville before homering in both wins vs. ULM. His solo homer in Game 1 helped App State overcome a 2-0 deficit in a 3-2 win, and he broke a 3-3 tie during a 10-8 win in Game 2 with a two-run shot that went 411 feet with an exit velocity of 105 mph.
In the two Texas State games, McDaniel was 4-for-7 with four RBIs, including an RBI double 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.
McDaniel was 2-for-4 in each of the last two games against Georgia Southern, with four exit velocities of at least 100 mph, including a recording of 112 that's the highest mark on the team this season.
CATCHING ON QUICKLY
Riley Smith led Sun Belt catchers during the 2018 regular season with 23 thrown-out steal attempts, and he's for fourth with 11 this season. Smith won the Rawlings NCJAA DII Gold Glove Catcher of the Year award in 2017.
TAKING A CLOSER PEEK AT LEEK
Outfielder
Tyler Leek, a newcomer from North Greenville University, homered against Georgia Southern in back-to-back games and leads the team with 18 runs scored even though he's had only 59 official at-bats.
Leek has posted 16 hits, drawn three walks and been hit by a pitch three times. Seven of his 16 hits have been extra-base hits, and that doesn't count two doubles in the first three innings of a series-ending ULM matchup that wasn't finished because of inclement weather.
