MONTGOMERY, Ala. — App State Baseball's
Liam Best and
Bradley Wilson combined for a strong mound effort in a short-rest pitcher's duel to open the Sun Belt Championship tournament, but Texas State produced enough offense in support of Bryson Dudley to win 3-0 on Tuesday at Riverwalk Stadium.
The 10th-seeded Mountaineers (23-31) concluded their season by falling in the single-elimination round of the event, while the seventh-seeded Bobcats (27-29) advanced to the double-elimination portion by prevailing in a game that included a combined five hits and lasted only 2 hours, 17 minutes. Texas State scored two unearned runs in the first inning, benefiting from an error that followed a hit batter in the leadoff spot, and it added an insurance run in the seventh.
App State's two hits were
Tyler Lichtenberger's leadoff single in the second inning and
Dillon Moquin's leadoff double in the seventh, but double plays erased both baserunners, as Dudley (5-1) faced the minimum of 27 batters in a complete-game victory. Starting on four days' rest, he struck out a career-high 10 batters in a 104-pitch outing.
Best, who began the season as App State's closer, also started on four days' rest and pitched a career-high 4.2 innings, at one point retiring eight straight batters. He allowed one hit and no earned runs before finishing with six strikeouts which matched his career high.
Wilson took over for Best with two away and runners at the corners in the fifth. He escaped that jam on a first-pitch flyout and allowed two hits in 3.1 innings, finishing with a pair of strikeouts.
With two aboard in the bottom of the first thanks to the hit batter and infield error, Texas State put two runners in scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. The Bobcats took the lead on an RBI groundout to short and added another run on an opposite-field single through the right side.
Three walks contributed to a bases-loaded jam with one away in the second, but Best got out of it on an infield popout and a swinging strikeout on a 2-2 pitch. He struck out the side an inning later and retired the side in order in the fourth.
The score remained 2-0 until the seventh, when Texas State's Chase Mora delivered a hit up the middle with one out and stretched it into a double. He stole third base and scored on an RBI single to right field. That extra run was more than enough for Dudley, who previously had allowed three runs in one-third of an inning by retiring only one of the four batters he faced in relief during a May 15 loss at App State, which swept that league-opening series.
A double-play groundout followed Lichtenberger's leadoff single in the second inning Tuesday. Moquin's leadoff double into the right-center gap to open the seventh was followed by a strikeout, and a hard-hit lineout near the third-base bag preceded a throw to second for a double play.
The Mountaineers won five of their first six Sun Belt weekends in 2025 and were looking to duplicate the late-season magic that had allowed them to win three games at the 2023 tournament and two games at the 2024 tournament.
The 2025 App State Baseball season was presented by Chick-fil-A.
