CULLOWHEE, N.C. — Six App State pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout as the Mountaineers won 2-0 at Western Carolina on Wednesday.
App State, which scored in the fourth and seventh innings, recorded a shutout of its former conference rival for the first time since a 3-0 victory in 1990. The Mountaineers (5-6) won for the fourth time in the last five games.
Smoky Mountain native
Cole Hooper, freshman
Noah Hall,
Cam Roberts, freshman
Cy Smith and
Andrew Papp worked together to blank the Catamounts for the first eight innings, receiving help from
Phillip Cole's diving catch in right,
Bailey Welch's off-balanced catch in foul territory beyond third and two double plays initiated by shortstop
Luke Allison.
Jack Hartman struck out two batters in the ninth, securing his second save on a swinging strikeout with runners at the corners. Western Carolina (7-5) was just three days removed from a win against Kansas.
"Great team effort on the mound tonight!" App State head coach
Kermit Smith said. "To keep those guys to six hits and no runs is really impressive, and doing it with six arms is even more impressive. I think that shows the depth we have on the mound. Nice to see T (
Andrew Terrell) have a couple of good ABs and steal a bag late to put us in a position to score that second run. We have to do a better job when we have a runner on third with less than two outs. Other than that, I thought we played pretty well. Excited to get out to practice tomorrow with these guys."
App State took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on an RBI single from Cole to bring home
Andrew Greckel, who had been hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
After Smith pitched around a leadoff double in a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning, benefiting from a backhanded stop by second baseman
Luke Drumheller to end the threat, the Mountaineers added to their lead in the seventh. A native of nearby Franklin,
Andrew Terrell drew a two-out walk, stole second base, advanced to third on Welch's single and scored on Drumheller's RBI single over the leaping second baseman's head.
Hooper, who attended high school less than five miles from Western Carolina's campus, struck out three batters and picked off one in two innings of work. Hall allowed one hit over the next two innings en route to earning his first career win, Roberts threw a scoreless fifth and Smith worked two scoreless innings. Papp pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning to set up the save opportunity for Hartman, who worked around a leadoff walk and two-out fielding error.
Welch and Allison led App State's offense with two hits apiece. Greckel, who doubled off the top of the wall, and
Jack Lipson collected extra-base hits.
Western put its leadoff batter on base in the first, third, sixth, seventh and ninth innings. Smith allowed the double to open the bottom of the sixth, and a groundout to second moved the runner to third with on out. Smith fielded a comebacker to keep the runner from advancing before Drumheller's nice play at second ended the inning.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2020 season.
