BOONE, N.C. — For the second straight day,
Tyler Leek hit a home run to give Appalachian State an early lead, but Georgia Southern used a three-run fifth to move ahead for good in a 6-2 victory Sunday.
Leek's second-inning homer Saturday produced the first run for App State in a 9-5 victory, and his second career home run put the Mountaineers (12-18, 5-7) ahead 1-0 in the third inning of the Sun Belt Conference series finale.
Appalachian moved ahead 2-0 when
Joel McDaniel's fourth-inning single scored
Kendall McGowan, who had singled and stolen second base. Sunday starter
Brandon Boone took a 2-0 lead into the fifth inning, when JP Tighe hit an RBI double off a diving outfielder's glove and Steven Curry followed that at-bat with a two-run single.
A leadoff double and sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning preceded an RBI grounder, and the Eagles (18-14, 7-5) extended their lead with an RBI single and run-scoring bunt in the eighth inning.
McGowan and McDaniel each went 2-for-4 for App State, which turned two double plays. McDaniel flipped to second baseman
Luke Drumheller to start a 6-4-3 double play before Leek's go-ahead homer, and third baseman
Luke Allison stepped on the bag to start a 5-3 double play in the seventh inning.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season. The Mountaineers have midweek games at Western Carolina (Tuesday) and UNC-Asheville (Wednesday) before playing host to a weekend series against ULM in Boone.
