NORFOLK, Va. – Despite rallying from a three-run deficit in the ninth inning, the Mountaineers came up short in the 12th, falling 11-10 to Old Dominion in the series finale at Bud Metheny Ballpark.
Despite the loss, App State (30-17-1, 15-11-1) has still won four consecutive Sun Belt series heading into its final conference set of the year, Thursday through Saturday at home against Georgia Southern.
Despite trailing 5-0 though five innings of play – with all of the runs coming in the second inning for the Monarchs – App State once again showed its late-inning reliance.
Austin St. Laurent led off the sixth inning with an infield single, and came in to score the Mountaineers' first run on an RBI double from
Banks Tolley two batters later.
CJ Boyd then roped an RBI single to make it 5-2.
The Mountaineers then took their first lead of the ballgame in the seventh. With one out,
Hunter Wilder singled,
Joseph Zamora walked and St. Laurent reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases. That set the table for
Drew Holderbach who crushed a go-ahead grand slam to give the Mountaineers a 6-5 advantage.
After the Monarchs responded with a run in the seventh and three in the eighth, the Mountaineers countered with just two outs to spare. Zamora, St. Laurent and Holderbach tallied three consecutive one-out singles to bring home a run and Boyd lifted a sac fly to left field to trim the deficit to 9-8 with one out remaining.
Braxton Church then hit a potential game-ending ball to shortstop but it was mishandled, allowing Holderbach to plate the tying run.
Zach Lewis entered in the bottom of the ninth inning and tossed a scoreless frame to push the game to extra innings.
The Mountaineers loaded the bases with nobody out in the tenth but were able to score only one run on a bases-loaded walk to Tolley.
ODU answered with a run in the bottom of the tenth to tie the score at 10-1, before Steven Meier hit a walk-off home run to begin the bottom of the 12th.
The Mountaineers out-hit the Monarchs 13-9 in the ballgame, but went 0-for-11 with two outs and stranded nine men on base in the contest.
On the mound
Ryan Sleeper struck out two in 2.2 scoreless innings in relief, while
Bradley Wilson fanned four in 2.2 innings in his first relief outing of the year.
App State will travel to Johnson City, Tenn. Tuesday for a 3 p.m. meeting with the Buccaneers that was added to the calendar on Friday.
The 2024 App State Baseball season is presented by Chick-fil-A.
