BOONE, N.C. — App State clinched another Sun Belt Conference series victory by winning 9-7 to open Sunday's doubleheader against Georgia State, and the Mountaineers are a division-leading 6-3 in league play after taking two of three games from the Panthers.
In the series finale, Georgia State erased a big ninth-inning deficit and won 15-13. App State (13-14 overall) had begun the series with a 4-2 win Friday.
The Mountaineers, who were 9-0 at home this season before dropping the finale, return to action Tuesday against Wake Forest. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Alex Leshock and
Peyton Idol hit their first career homers Sunday,
Dalton Williams drilled a pinch-hit homer and the Mountaineers also got homers from
Luke Drumheller and
Kendall McGowan.
GAME 1 RECAP
Georgia State took a 5-3 lead with a sixth-inning grand slam, but Leshock's first career homer with
Hayden Cross on base tied the game in the bottom half of the frame before Drumheller brought in
Bailey Welch with a go-ahead, two-out single. McGowan followed that with a two-run homer for an 8-5 lead heading into the seventh inning.
Andrew Terrell took the mound with an 8-7 edge and earned his first career save with two scoreless innings. With the bases loaded and two out in the ninth against Ryan Glass, who had hit a solo homer and delivered the grand slam earlier in the game, Terrell knocked down a hard-hit comebacker and threw to first for the final out.
App State led 3-0 on a McGowan single,
Robbie Young's RBI single and Idol's RBI ground before needing to overcome some adversity, as Glass cut into the lead with his solo homer in the fifth and put the Panthers in front with his two-out grand slam in the sixth.
Eli Ellington picked up the win in relief of
Noah Hall, who held Georgia State to one run in the first five innings and finished with seven strikeouts.
GAME 2 RECAP
App State took a 12-6 lead into the ninth inning, erasing a 6-5 deficit on a two-run homer off the scoreboard from pinch-hitter
Dalton Williams during a three-run seventh for the Mountaineers. A four-run eighth (highlighted by Drumheller's two-run homer) pushed the advantage to six, but the Panthers scored nine runs on seven hits in the top of the ninth.
Georgia State was down to its last strike with two runners on and App State holding a 12-11 lead, but a hit batter preceded a go-ahead grand slam from Josh Smith.
Before taking the lead on Williams' homer, the Mountaineers turned deficits of 2-1, 4-2 and 5-4 into tied scores, with Idol's homer to center evening the score at 5-all.
Welch and Cross led the Mountaineers with three hits apiece, and Drumheller finished with three RBIs. Terrell, McGowan, Young had two hits apiece.
