BOONE, N.C. – App State Baseball scored four runs in the first inning and rallied to tie in the sixth but fell short by a run to No. 16 Coastal Carolina in an 8-7 final in Sunday's series finale.
After Coastal (13-6, 3-0) overcame a five-run deficit to take the lead in the sixth inning, App State (10-9, 0-3) tied the score in the home half of the frame on a two-out, two-run double from
Ethan Puig, sending the game to the late stages tied 7-7.
The double was the third consecutive two-out hit in the frame by the Mountaineers, preceeded by back-to-back singles from
Steven Smith and
Riley Luft.
After the leadoff batter reached in the top of the eighth, Coastal used a sacrifice bunt to push
Trace Mazon into scoring position and
Walker Mitchell followed by lining a 3-0 pitch into right field for the go-ahead single.
In the bottom of the ninth,
Tank Yaghoubi led off with a single to left and with two outs,
Joseph Zamora lifted a deep fly to the warning track in right field, coming up just short on a bid for a walk-off home run.
App State jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
Nico Soul launched the first pitch of the inning off the batter's eye in center field for his team-leading fifth home run of the season. After a Chanticleers fielding error extended the inning, and
Jalen Seward delivered a two-run double down the right field line and
Charlie Evans executed a safety squeeze to plate another run as the Mountaineers batted around in the frame.
App State added a run on a Seward RBI groundout in the third to plate Puig, who doubled to lead off the inning. Puig finished with three hits and drove in two runs, while also scoring a pair.
Tanner Nolan struck out five and didn't allow a hit through the first 3.1 innings, but after conceding his first hit in the fourth the next five batters all reached base, ending his outing.
Coastal plated four in the fourth inning to cut the Mountaineers lead to one. Brice Estep hit a game-tying home run for Coastal to lead off the sixth, and the Chanticleers pushed their lead to 7-5 later in the inning after an RBI groundout and an RBI single.
App State will head to High Point on Tuesday to face the Panthers in the first game of a home-and-home series at 6 p.m.
The 2026 App State Baseball season is presented by Chick-fil-A.
