CONWAY, S.C. — Appalachian State closes the 2019 regular season with a Sun Belt Conference road series against Coastal Carolina, which is also the host of next week's Sun Belt Championships in Conway, S.C.
The series begins Thursday at 6 p.m., continues Friday at 6 p.m. and concludes Saturday at 2 p.m. All three games can be
seen here on the Chanticleer Sports Network, and the radio call will be available by
clicking here.
App State (21-28 overall) enters the series against the Chanticleers (28-22-1, 13-12) with the ninth-best league record (12-14) in the Sun Belt — a half-game behind No. 8 Louisiana (13-14), one game ahead of No. 10 ULM (11-15) and 1.5 games ahead of No. 11 Arkansas State (11-16). Georgia State is the only team eliminated from tourney contention.
The 12-team league has a 10-team tournament, with the teams seeded No. 7, No. 8, No. 9 and No. 10 participating in a single-elimination game Tuesday and those two winners advancing to an eight-team, double-elimination bracket that starts Wednesday. The championship round will be held Sunday, May 26.
With ULM hosting Louisiana and Arkansas State hosting Little Rock (15-11), if every league game is played, it appears that one App State win would clinch a tournament berth. It appears the only elimination scenario would be three losses at Coastal, coupled with series victories (2-1 or 3-0) by both ULM and Arkansas State.
The fact that App State and ULM are set to play 29 league games instead of 30 (their April 14 series finale was canceled) erases the possibility for some ties in the final standings, with league winning percentage determining seeds, and App State's series wins vs. ULM and Louisiana are helpful in potential tiebreakers.
Also, first-place Texas State swept Louisiana, Arkansas State and ULM but lost once to App State, in the unlikely case that a three-way tie between App State/Louisiana/Arkansas State would need to be broken.
For App State to possibly secure a top-six seed and avoid Tuesday's single-elimination session, it would need a sweep of Coastal to reach 15-14, along with help like Louisiana not going 16-14 with a sweep of ULM and Troy not beating South Alabama twice to where both the Trojans and Jaguars would finish 16-14.
RECAPPING THE SERIES HISTORY
Coastal Carolina's 7-1 record includes App State's 11-7 win in its 2018 finale.
Appalachian State ended a long Senior Day in 2018 with that victory against 16th-ranked league champion Coastal Carolina.
The Mountaineers and Chanticleers played 21 innings that day, as Coastal Carolina finished off a 10-4 victory in Game 1 of the series and won 10-5 in Game 2 before falling to App State in the finale.
Appalachian trailed 3-0 in Game 3 before recording its highest-scoring inning of the season with a six-run fourth that included seven walks and two hit batters. Leading 7-5 in the seventh inning, the Mountaineers extended their advantage thanks to
Joel McDaniel's solo homer,
CJ Brown's sacrifice fly to score
Drew Beck and
Alex Leshock's two-run double.
BEATING THE DRUM
Luke Drumheller, who has led the Sun Belt in hitting and ranked in the top five nationally among D1 freshmen for most of the year, is already set to play in the prestigious Cape Cod League this summer with the Wareham (Mass.) Gatemen.
Batting .343, Drumheller leads Sun Belt second basemen in RBIs (35), slugging (.470) and doubles (15, tied for first).
Drumheller tied an NCAA record while breaking school/league records 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 D1 player to hit five doubles in a game and the first since Western Carolina's Aaron Attaway in 2012.
KEEPING UP WITH KENDALL
With a combination of power and consistent productivity,
Kendall McGowan has seven home runs in the last 11 games, including an inside-the-park homer Tuesday in which he circled the bases in 16.23 seconds after hitting the wall in left-center, according to the @AppStSportsData account on Twitter.
McGowan also has a .396 average (19-for-48) and 16 RBIs over the last 11 games. He's second on App State's team with 15 multi-hit games (all in his last 35 games).
McGowan is batting .310 for the year with eight homers and a league-leading four triples, and his .337 average in league play ranks 13th in the Sun Belt. Of the top six batting averages for Sun Belt outfielders in league play, McGowan ranks No. 3 in homers, No. 2 in steals and No. 4 in slugging in that group.
TAKING THE MOUND
GAME 1: TYLER TUTHILL
Named the league's No. 2 impact freshman by D1Baseball in the preseason and voted the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Week following a four-hit shutout of UTA on April 27, Tuthill is tied for No. 3 in the league in pitching wins (six), is No. 2 in opposing batting average (.219) and is No. 4 in ERA (3.53).
He is tied for No. 10 nationally in wins by a Division I freshman.
Tuthill has allowed three earned runs or less in 10 of his 13 starts and given up four hits or less in seven of his 13 starts.
GAME 2: BRANDON BOONE
App State was 5-1 in Game 3 conference starts from Boone before he started Game 2 of the South Alabama series last weekend.
The midweek starter for all of 2018 and the first part of this year, Boone has 114 strikeouts in 105.2 innings since joining the program before the 2018 season.
He has started four of App State's seven shutouts in the last two years.
GAME 3: TBD
App State has not named a Game 3 starter for the Coastal Carolina series.
Jason Cornatzer, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, started Game 3 of the South Alabama series last weekend and took a 2-0 lead into the fifth inning.
ASSESSING THE BULLPEN
App State moved forward without 2018 closer
Luke Watts, who had a team-leading 2.29 ERA in 30 appearances, but the Mountaineers brought back
standout right-handers
Kaleb Bowman and
Andrew Papp.
Bowman ranks No. 2 in the Sun Belt in ERA (3.25) among qualifying pitchers and No. 1 among full-time qualifying relievers. He has a 5-1 record and four saves while leading full-time Sun Belt relievers with 52.2 innings over 25 appearances (the most among qualifying pitchers in the ERA race, with 21 ranking second).
Bowman had both App State wins during the team's 2-1 weekend at Louisiana and had both saves in a 2-0 weekend vs. ULM. He also has a league win against Arkansas State as well as a Sun Belt save vs. league-leading Texas State.
In his two-year App State career, Bowman has a 7-1 pitching record.
Papp has a 3.05 ERA in 25 appearances this year with six saves, a 1-1 record and 42 strikeouts in 38.1 innings. Eliminating a rain-soaked eighth inning vs. ULM in which the two teams combined for 10 runs in difficult pitching conditions that led to a pair of lengthy delays, Papp has a 2.41 ERA this season.
TAKING A CLOSER PEEK AT LEEK
In his first year playing at App State following a transfer from Division II North Greenville,
Tyler Leek is hitting .306 with 29 runs scored (tied for the team lead) and four home runs (all in Sun Belt play) among his 11 extra-base hits in just 111 at-bats (ninth on the team).
The 29 runs are a high number considering he has reached base via a hit, walk or hit by pitch 45 times.
MAKING SOLID CONTACT
Joel McDaniel leads Sun Belt shortstops in slugging percentage (.529) and is No. 2 with seven home runs. That's helped him bat .311 in league play this year.
He hit his seventh homer during the Arkansas State series, had a single with a 111-mph exit velocity in the UTA series and leads the team this year with a 112-mph exit velocity recorded during the Georgia Southern series, according to the @AppStSportsData account on Twitter.
CATCHING ON QUICKLY
Riley Smith led Sun Belt catchers during the 2018 regular season with 23 thrown-out steal attempts, and he's fourth with 14 this season. His total of 37 over the last two seasons leads Sun Belt catchers.
Smith won the Rawlings NCJAA DII Gold Glove Catcher of the Year award in 2017.
GRADING OUT WELL
App State has posted a perfect single-year APR score of 1,000 for the first time.
The NCAA released APR data for the 2017-18 academic year this week, and third-year coach
Kermit Smith's program was one of a record-breaking 14 varsity teams from App State with a perfect single-year score from 2017-18.
It was the first score of 1,000 for App State Baseball since the APR began being documented for the 2004-05 year and the only 1,000 from a Sun Belt baseball program for the 2017-18 cycle.
The Mountaineers have posted a team GPA of better than 3.0 in two of the last three semesters after last reaching that mark in the fall of 2010. In the 2018-19 fall semester, App State had a 3.07 GPA, with 23 players surpassing a 3.0.
