BOONE, N.C. – In the final home series of the season, a pair of Mountaineer seniors –
Alex Reed and
Jeriah Henry – rose to the occasion, helping the Mountaineers to an 11-10 comeback win over Arkansas State, to claim their sixth Sun Belt Series of the year.
Trailing 10-7 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Mountaineers (25-21, 14-11) began to rally. They had already come back to tie the ballgame after a 4-0 deficit in the first inning, but this time had little margin for error.
App State promptly loaded the bases to begin the home eighth on a double from
Xavier Moronta, followed by a
Luke Drumheller single and a
Hayden Cross walk. After an A-State pitching change,
Golston Gillespie just missed a grand slam, settling for a sac fly on a flyout to the warning track, on which all three runners advanced. Then with two outs, Reed destroyed a 1-1 pitch, belting it off the video board in right field for his third career home run, all of which have come in the last month of play, giving App State its first lead of the ballgame at 11-10.
In the top of the ninth App State turned to Henry (save, 1), who picked up back-to-back strikeouts to begin the inning, and set down the third batter he faced on a flyout to left field to earn his first career save, sealing the App State victory.
The Black and Gold played from behind the entire day. Trailing 4-0, four batters into the ballgame, the home team responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the first inning, scoring on a wild pitch and a pair of sac flies.
CJ Boyd tied the score in the second on an RBI groundout, but the Red Wolves hit a third inning home run to go back in front.
Grey LaSpaluto was outstanding in relief. The right-hander entered in the first inning and tossing a career-high 5.1 innings in relief, allowing just two runs and striking out two
. Dante Chirico (win, 2-1) picked up the victory with three strikeouts in two innings of work.
Andrew Terrell helped the Mountaineers chip away in the middle innings, hammering his fifth home run of the season to lead off the home half of the fourth. App State scored two more runs in the seventh on an RBI double from Reed and an RBI single from Terrell, after Gillespie and
Dylan Rogers opened the inning with back-to-back walks. Reed has now tallied five multi-hit games in seven starts for the Mountaineers this season.
App State will go for their first Sun Belt sweep of the season, Sunday at 1 p.m. the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
