BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State, the third-place team in the Sun Belt's East Division entering this weekend, plays host to Georgia Southern, the second-place team, for their first series in Boone since 2016.
Game 1 is scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m., followed by Game 2 on Saturday at 1 p.m. and Game 3 on Sunday at noon. The games will be available on AppVision with Randy Jackson as the play-by-play announcer.
App State has six Sun Belt home series this year instead of five because last year's matchups with Georgia Southern involved a rain-related move from Boone to Statesboro. The Mountaineers are in a stretch of playing three straight Sun Belt series and 10 of 12 games at home, including this seven-game homestand.
App State aspires to set a stadium attendance record Saturday. Since Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium opened in 2007, the current record of 1,116 fans was set in a 2-0 win against Georgia Southern on April 6, 2013. Last Saturday, a crowd of 827 was on hand for the App State-Texas State game in Boone.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
RECAPPING THE SERIES
Georgia Southern has a 67-21 lead in the series with its former SoCon rival, including an 11-1 record since they've both been in the Sun Belt. App State's last win was a 7-3 victory in Game 2 of the 2017 series.
CLOSING THE SEVEN-GAME HOMESTAND
On Tuesday, a four-run third inning helped App State take a two-run lead into the fifth inning against visiting Wake Forest, but the Demon Deacons won 10-6.
After losing 8-3 and 5-4 to open its Sun Belt series with top-55 RPI foe Texas State, App State won 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).
FACING TOUGH COMPETITION
App State has played seven games vs. Power Five foes who are a combined 74-44: Tennessee (22-8), South Carolina (18-11), Miami (18-11) and Wake Forest (16-14). Appalachian won on the road against a league-leading FAU team that is 20-9 with four NCAA regional appearances in the last six seasons.
BEATING THE DRUM
Freshman second baseman Luke Drumheller, who has hit safely in 22 of his last 23 games, leads the Sun Belt in batting average (.402, No. 32 nationally) while also ranking second in hits per game (1.56, No. 37 nationally), third in doubles (10, No. 57 nationally), fourth in RBIs (28) and fourth in total hits (39).
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.
TAKING THE MOUND
* Will Sprinkle, who ranked second on the team with a 2.96 ERA last season, is the probable Game 1 starter. 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.
Sprinkle pitched 4.1 innings against Texas State and received a no-decision after allowing four runs in five innings at Louisiana. Before that, he allowed two runs on seven hits in seven innings of a 2-0 loss against Georgia State.
Sprinkle recorded a career-high nine strikeouts against Furman on March 15 and allowed three earned runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings. Sprinkle took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of a 5-2 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 is tied for third in the Sun Belt in wins (four), No. 7 in opposing batting average (.226) and No. 6 in batters struck out looking (14).
Before dropping to 4-3 with losses to Texas State (five strikeouts with three runs on three hits in five innings) and Louisiana (three hits and four runs allowed in 5.2 innings), Tuthill allowed two runs over seven innings against Georgia State.
He gave up one hit in five scoreless innings vs. Furman on March 16 before four relievers allowed no hits over the last four innings. Before that, Tuthill allowed no runs and just one hit through the first five innings of a 24-3 win against Gardner-Webb. He 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 gave up one run on two hits in four innings.
* Brandon Boone has helped App State go 2-0 in Sun Belt series finales since he became the Sunday starter. He is 3-1 this year with 36 strikeouts in 30.1 innings.
Third in the league with 10.68 strikeouts per nine innings this year, he has 86 strikeouts in 80.2 innings since joining the program before the 2018 season. Of App State's six shutouts in the last two seasons, Boone has started four of them.
Boone made the first weekend start of his career at Louisiana and finished with five strikeouts and four runs allowed in five innings of App State's win. He then pitched five scoreless innings while finishing with a career-high-tying seven strikeouts and three hits allowed last weekend against Texas State.
Boone won at FAU on March 5 by giving up two runs in five innings and striking out seven in the 6-3 road victory. He allowed two runs on five hits in six innings and had seven strikeouts a week earlier at South Carolina and pitched two scoreless innings of relief at Tennessee on opening weekend.
Boone started in 11 of his 12 appearances last season, when he went 3-5 and totaled 50 strikeouts in 50.1 innings. He had a 3.33 ERA as a starter heading into his final start of the 2018 season.
MAKING SOLID CONTACT
Shortstop Joel McDaniel has started the last three games, including the last two games of the Texas State series.
In those two games, he 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.
McDaniel went 1-for-4 with a double in the midweek game against Wake Forest.
