App State Baseball continues its four-game road swing with a mid-week trip to Greensboro to face North Carolina A&T. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
SCOUTING APP STATE: The Mountaineers (6-8) lost two of three over the weekend to the Charlotte 49ers. On Sunday, the Mountaineers found themselves behind 6-2 after the first inning, but chipped away across the middle innings to cut into the deficit. Down to their final out in the ninth,
Luke Drumheller tied the game with a two-run single.
Hunter Bryson made a diving catch in the 11
th inning to strand the would-be winning run at second base, paving the way for a go-ahead RBI single from
Andrew Greckel in the 12
th to win it for the Mountaineers. The ballgame spanned 5:40.
On Friday, Bryson and
Hayden Cross each homered but the Mountaineers fell 9-3. On Saturday App State scored six runs in the fourth inning, but fell victim to a pair of 49ers grand slams.
SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA A&T: The Aggies enter Tuesday's contest 6-9 on the season but have dropped each of their last three contests, including a double-header on Friday in Richmond in which they lost 10-6 to Monmouth in game one, and 9-6 to VCU in game two. Three of the Aggies six wins this season came in a sweep of Holy Cross to open the month of March. Redshirt-junior Anthony Hennings has led A&T at the plate with a slash line of .415/.458/.488 while redshirt-sophomore Xavier Bussey has homered twice and driven in a team-high 12 runs, while boasting a .344 average. On the mound, redshirt-freshman Stirling Thomas has not allowed a run across eight relief appearances this year.
ON THE BUMP: Right-hander
Grey LaSpaluto will make his first start as a Mountaineer. A sophomore, who has transferred from Gardner-Webb and a Chattanooga, LaSpaluto has made three relief appearances this year, including February 26 against UNC-G when he tossed a scoreless frame.
SERIES HISTORY: Tuesday's meeting will be the 21
st all-time between the Mountaineers and Aggies. The two teams met five times last spring with App State winning four of the five matchups, and twice plating 14 runs in a ballgame. App State outscored the Aggies 49-28 across the five contests.
MOUNTING A COMEBACK: Despite falling behind 6-2 in the first inning on Sunday, the Mountaineers rallied to tie the ballgame at 7-7 in the ninth inning before winning the contest 9-7 in 12 frames. It marked the third time this season that App State won a ballgame when trailing after eight innings of play. Last Saturday against UNC-W the Mountaineers scored four runs in the eighth and four in the ninth to claim a 12-11 walk-off victory. They also topped Campbell 5-4 on February 20
th to take the series, on a go-ahead eighth inning home run from
Hunter Bryson.
RED HOT HAYDEN: Mountaineers catcher
Hayden Cross has been on a tear at the plate as of late. He tallied three two-hit games against the 49ers over the weekend and has now hit safely in six straight games, going 12-for-22 (.545) over that stretch with two doubles and a home run. On the season Cross boasts a slash line of .426/.509/.617.
WHAT A RELIEF: In Sunday's win over Charlotte, the Mountaineer bullpen was a big catalyst for their comeback.
Trey Tujetsch entered the ballgame in the first inning, and went on to strike out five in 5.1 scoreless innings.
Eli Ellington followed with three innings, in which he yielded only one run and struck out four.
Cameron Carter earned the win, tossing the final three frames. He struck out three and did not give up a hit. The trio combined to post a 0.79 ERA for the Mountaineers across the final 11.1 innings.
BASHIN' BRYSON: Redshirt freshman
Hunter Bryson has made an instant impact in his first action for App State. Through 14 games, he leads the team with four home runs, which have accounted for more than half of his seven hits. He is also ranks third on the team with nine RBIs. His four homers tie him for seventh among Sun Belt hitters this season.
BUILDING BLOCKS: Under the direction of
Kermit Smith, App State went 11-10 in Sun Belt Conference regular season games last season to post the sixth-best record in the 12-team league. It was the program's first winning record and best Sun Belt finish since joining the league in 2015. The Mountaineers also earned their first-ever Sun Belt tourney win with a 1-0 victory against Texas State.
With the Sun Belt ranking as a top-10 league (out of 31 Division I conferences) in each of Smith's first five seasons, the Mountaineers are 32-33 in their last 65 Sun Belt regular season games after winning nine times in 45 Sun Belt regular season games during Smith's first year and a half of rebuilding.
RACKIN' UP THE K's: In four starts for the Mountaineers this season,
Xander Hamilton has overpowered opposing hitters, striking out at least nine batters in each outing, and totaled 41 strikeouts on the season, which leads Sun Belt pitchers. He also ranks third in innings pitched (23.2). In contrast, he has walked only eight batters this season.
NEXT UP: App State will open conference play as they welcome Georgia Southern to Boone for a three-game weekend series. Friday's contest will get underway at 5 p.m. with a 3 p.m. first pitch on Saturday, before closing out the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday. All three games will be streamed on ESPN+.
