BOONE, N.C. — South Alabama broke a tie with a two-run top of the ninth inning, including a go-ahead homer from Santi Montiel, and Appalachian State responded with one run in the bottom of the ninth before falling 5-4 against the Jaguars on Sunday.
Kendall McGowan (tying homer in the fifth),
Tyler Leek and
Phillip Cole had three hits apiece for the Mountaineers (21-27, 12-14 Sun Belt).
Luke Allison added two hits, and starting pitcher
Jason Cornatzer took a 2-0 lead into the fifth inning.
A potential third out in the fifth on an attempted sliding catch of an outfield flyball popped out of the defender's glove, putting two runners on for Nick Lewis, who delivered a three-run homer on the next pitch to give the Jaguars (29-22, 15-12) a 3-2 lead. McGowan tied the game to open the bottom half of that inning with his no-doubt homer to left, and a strong relief effort from
Kaleb Bowman helped keep the game tied until the ninth.
Montiel homered with one out, and Reid Powers' one-out double led to reliever
Andrew Papp entering the game. A lineout, followed by an intentional walk to star freshman Ethan Wilson, preceded Michael Sandle's RBI single through the left side.
Facing closer Zach Greene and his 0.42 ERA in the bottom of the ninth, McGowan drew a one-out walk and moved to third on Cole's single to right.
Joel McDaniel sent McGowan home with a sacrifice fly to right, and
Alex Leshock pinch-ran for McDaniel.
Robbie Young's opposite-field hit for a potential double past the third baseman, along the third-base line, was ruled foul before a groundout on a 3-2 pitch ended the game.
App State currently has the ninth-best league record in the 12-team Sun Belt, which has a 10-team postseason tournament.
The Mountaineers return to action Tuesday with their home finale against UNC Asheville, and their final Sun Belt series of the regular season begins Thursday at Coastal Carolina. Heading into that road series, Appalachian will enter that series a half-game behind eighth-place Louisiana (13-14), one game ahead of 10th-place ULM (11-15) and 1.5 games ahead of 11th-place Arkansas State (11-16). Only 12th place-Georgia State (5-22) has been eliminated from tournament contention, and the two Louisiana schools will face each other this weekend, with App State owning a potential tiebreaker over both.
Before and after Lewis' three-run homer in the fifth inning Sunday, App State had chances to do more offensive damage. With a 2-0 lead in the fourth, a hard-hit groundout with the bases loaded ended the inning.
Cole followed McGowan's game-tying homer in the fifth with a single and advanced to second on a walk to McDaniel. Young's sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position with one out, but an infield pop-up and strikeout ended that threat.
App State's 2-0 lead resulted from a first-inning run by Leek, who singled and reached third on a McGowan single before racing home on a wild pitch. In the third inning,
Luke Drumheller was hit by a pitch before McGowan doubled and Cole hit a sacrifice fly.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 season.
