MONTGOMERY, Ala. – App State scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take the lead and held onto the advantage in the ninth, fending off James Madison 8-7 and advancing in the Sun Belt tournament on Thursday.
A trio of fifth-year seniors ignited the late-game heroics at the plate. Tied 5-5 late in the Mountaineers' second game in the double-elimination event at Riverwalk Stadium,
Andrew Terrell led off the home half of the eighth with a single to the hole at shortstop. After Terrell stole second to advance into scoring position and moved to third with two away,
Luke Drumheller bounced a ball off the first base bag and into right field for a go-ahead double. On the very next pitch,
Hayden Cross crushed a two-run home run to right field to give the sixth-seeded Mountaineers an 8-5 advantage.
Seventh-seeded James Madison loaded the bases in the ninth, and
Skylar Brooks (save, 2) came out of the bullpen with a one-run lead and two runners aboard. He got the final two outs to secure the save, and the team win for the Mountaineers, helped by a leaping catch on the warning track from
CJ Boyd for the final out.
App State (28-24) struck first with a pair of runs in the third inning. Boyd laced a double to the left-center gap, and Drumheller followed with a double of his own two batters later to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead. Cross followed with an RBI single to right field to make it 2-0.
Drumheller finished the contest with a four-hit outing in his 225
th career game in a Black and Gold uniform, tying Hector Crespo's program record.
After the Dukes took a brief lead thanks to a three-run homer in the top of the fourth, App State responded immediately in the home half of the frame.
Austin St. Laurent doubled to left field, and
Hunter Wilder followed with a single up the middle to tie the score. Two batters later, Boyd pushed a bunt up the first base line for a hit, scoring Wilder, who had made his way around to third base, putting the Mountaineers ahead 4-3.
St. Laurent came through with an RBI single in the fifth to score Drumheller, who had reached on a leadoff single, to cap a three-hit game for the App State shortstop.
JMU tied the score with a two-run homer in the seventh and threatened to take the lead in the eighth, but
Jeriah Henry (first career win, 1-0) came out of the bullpen to roll an inning-ending double play ball to escape the jam.
Dante Chirico made his third start of the season and went 5.1 innings, giving up just three runs on four hits, all coming on the fourth-inning home run. Chirico struck out three before turning the ball over to
Grey LaSpaluto, who fanned two more in two innings of work.
App State finished with 15 hits for the second consecutive ballgame. In addition to multi-hit games from Drumheller and St. Laurent, Boyd tallied a three-hit game to extend his hitting streak to 16 in a row, while
Xavier Moronta's first-inning single extended his hitting streak to 18 straight games.
App State will return to action Friday at 4 p.m. ET when it will face third-seeded Troy, which followed a win over App State with a Thursday loss to Southern Miss, in an elimination game. The Mountaineers will play a third game at their conference tournament for the first time since 2014.
The contest will air on ESPN+.
