CHARLESTON, S.C. – In the team's first midweek competition of the season, the App State softball team exploded for nine runs in the first inning, which helped shoot it to a 12-2 victory in five innings. App State's nine runs in the first inning marked the most it has scored in a single inning this season.
The victory marked App State's (18-5) fifth victory in a row, with each of them coming via run rule. The Mountaineers have scored 59 runs over their last five games.
Macy Hamby and
Grace Barrett combined to go 7-7 with four RBIs for the Mountaineers in the second and third holes of the lineup, with Hamby producing a four-hit game. Hamby also made a run-saving diving catch in left field in the second inning to go along with her four hits at the plate. As a team, the Mountaineers swatted 11 hits, their fifth straight contest with at least 10 hits.
Despite allowing a first-inning unearned run,
Camryn Fisher continued to shine in the circle against College of Charleston (11-14), allowing just two hits in four innings of work. The freshman picked up her team-leading 10th win of the season, while striking out two Cougars in the process.
How it Happened
It took just three hitters for App State to score on Tuesday as
Makayla McClain was hit by a pitch to lead off the contest, Hamby singled to left and Barrett drove in McClain to make the score 1-0. The Cougars recorded the first out of the game, but a walk to
Emilie Ching loaded the bases and
Leah Gore took one for the team to drive home a run on a bases-loaded hit by pitch to extend App State's advantage to two.
Still with one out,
Julia Girk laced a line drive that got past a diving left fielder to plate two more runs. Girk scored a batter later, and Hamby made the score 8-0 with her second hit of the frame. Capping off an explosive inning that saw six hits, Barrett tallied her second RBI single of the inning to push the Mountaineers ahead by nine runs before the home team had taken an at-bat in the contest.
Charleston countered by scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the inning, but Fisher limited the damage to just the one run over the next two frames as neither side scored in the second. App State plated its 10th run in the third inning thanks to the third hit of the game from Hamby that drove in
KB Bradshaw.
The Mountaineers extended their lead to 10 without the benefit of a hit in the fourth inning after
Emersyn Presutty, who pinch-ran for Ching after she drew a lead-off walk, stole two bases in front of a
Madison Fletcher groundout. Fisher kept the Cougars off the board in the bottom of the inning, and App State scored run No. 12 in the top of the fifth, using a
Taylor Schafer bases-loaded single to do so.
Needing five runs to extend the game, Charleston totaled two hits in the bottom of the fifth, but
Bel Varadi kept the damage to just one run and secured App State's 18th win of the season. The win also marked the Mountaineers' 11th straight midweek win, a streak that dates back to 2024.
Tuesday Notes
Home runs
App: N/A
CofC: N/A
WP:
Camryn Fisher (10-3): 4 IP, 2 hits, 1 run (0 earned runs), 0 walks, 2 strikeouts
SV: N/A
LP: Campbell Schaen (0-2): 1 IP, 6 hits, 9 runs (6 earned runs), 1 walk, 1 strikeout
Up Next
App State will play one last contest in Charleston, taking on the Charleston Southern Buccaneers at the CSU Softball Complex on Wednesday. The Mountaineers will then open Sun Belt play on Friday in Conway against Coastal Carolina. First pitch against Charleston Southern is slated for 5 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
