CHARLESTON, S.C. – App State's baseball team earned a three-game weekend sweep with a 4-2 win at Charleston Southern on Sunday afternoon. The Mountaineers recorded a perfect 4-0 week and will head into their first home game on Tuesday with wins in seven of their past eight tries.
Sophomore left-hander
Cole Hooper delivered five innings of one-run baseball to earn his first win as a Mountaineer. The lefty threw just 59 pitches to retire 15 Charleston Southern batters, allowing only four hits while striking out four opposing hitters.
App State's bullpen then shut down Charleston Southern (7-10) from the mound, holding the Bucs to just three hits in the final four innings. Senior
Jack Hartman nailed down his third save, punching out CSU's Kelleher with runners at first and third to end the game. Senior
Andrew Papp and freshman
Noah Hall combined to throw three innings of scoreless relief to set up Hartman for the final three outs.
"Learned a lot about our group today," head coach
Kermit Smith said. "Extremely proud of how focused we were, specifically the last two days. Hoop, Papp, Hall and Hartman continued our stretch of good performances. A lot of really good things happened today that don't show up in a box score, including Bailey's play in the third. A lot of good work was done with two strikes and two outs by our offense. We had a lot of quality at-bats overall. The thing that was most impressive is just our overall attitude with not being satisfied with two out of three. Can't wait to get back to God's Country and continue this journey with these guys."
The Mountaineers (8-6) scored a pair of runs in the third and fourth innings to jump out to an early 4-1 lead. Sophomore
Luke Drumheller recorded his first of three RBIs on the day with an RBI single in the third, plating junior
Bailey Welch to give App State a 1-0 lead. The Mountaineers then doubled their advantage with an RBI single from senior
Robbie Young.
After Charleston Southern cut the lead to 2-1, Drumheller stretched App State's lead to 4-1 with a two-run homer in the fourth. Drumheller's second home run of the season marked his team-leading 15
th RBI.
Junior
Andrew Greckel extended his hitting streak to eight games in Sunday's victory. Greckel also extended his reached-base streak to 13 games with a walk in the second inning.
App State's pitching staff combined to allow just seven runs in four games this week, blanking Western Carolina on Wednesday before giving up four runs or less in each game this weekend. App State pitchers retired 32 batters via a strikeout in this week's contests.
The Mountaineers will head home for their first home games of the season on Tuesday and Wednesday. App State hosts Siena for the first time in program history, playing two midweek contests at Jim & Bettie Smith Stadium. First pitch for Tuesday's game is set for 3 p.m. at Beaver Field.
App State Baseball would like to thank AutoStar Nissan of Boone for serving as the presenting sponsor of the 2020 season.
