STATESBORO, Ga. — Noah Hall and
Eli Ellington limited Georgia Southern to four hits, productive outs gave App State an early lead and
Robbie Young added insurance with a solo homer as the Mountaineers closed a Sun Belt road series with a 3-1 victory Sunday.
App State (11-11) improved to 4-2 in league play and won a Sun Belt game in Statesboro for the second time since both programs joined the league.
Making a Sunday start for the second straight weekend, Hall earned another win by allowing just one run on four hits in six efficient innings. He finished with four strikeouts, and Ellington recorded his second save by retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced in three innings. Counting his scoreless appearance Friday, he didn't allow a run in 5.2 innings during the series.
Ellington began his Sunday appearance by retiring seven straight Eagles before he hit a batter with a 3-2 offering with one away in the ninth. A groundout and a strikeout with one runner aboard sealed the win against Georgia Southern (12-10, 3-3).
Hall improved to 6-0 in his career, including 4-0 this season with a 2.40 ERA in 11 appearances. In the first two starts of his young career, he's 2-0 with two runs allowed and 12 strikeouts in 11.0 innings.
Young's third homer of the season, a 412-foot shot over the "Blue Monster" in right, gave the Mountaineers a 3-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning.
They scored twice in the third inning, as
Andrew Terrell went to first after being hit by a pitch, advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt and reached third on a ball-four wild pitch to
Peyton Idol.
Bailey Welch produced a sacrifice fly as Georgia Southern's second baseman made an over-the-shoulder catch in short right, and Idol's first-to-third movement on
Luke Drumheller's single to center set up an RBI groundout for Young.
Cross and Idol, who led off the game with a double, both went 1-for-3 as App State also finished with four hits.
Hall pitched around a leadoff double in the bottom of the first, following that hit with back-to-back strikeouts, and he retired 15 of 18 batters in the first five innings. In that time, he allowed single baserunners in three frames.
A leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth set up a sacrifice fly that cut App State's lead to 3-1 with two away. After back-to-back walks — Hall's only free passes of the day — a flyout to left preserved the two-run lead.
The Mountaineers return to action Tuesday at Wake Forest.
