BOONE, N.C. – In nearly identical fashion to Friday's home opener, the App State softball team scored seven runs through the first two innings against Furman before breaking the game open with a grand slam off the bat of
Leah Gore in the third inning. The Mountaineers scored in every inning on Saturday, which helped them post a convincing 15-1 win in five innings for their 15th win of the year.
App State (15-5) scored just three batters into the game after
Grace Barrett drove an RBI double into left field. Six different players drove in a run against Furman, highlighted by three RBIs apiece from Barrett and
Macy Hamby, and a four-RBI game from Gore.
Taylor Schafer also produced a multi-RBI game with two, and
Makayla McClain and
Emilie Ching drove home a run apiece in the win.
Although she gave up a fifth-inning run,
Sophie Moshos was dynamite in the circle, allowing two hits while striking out eight. Moshos' eight strikeouts marked her season high and put her one punch out away from 500 for her career. Through two games at the Mountaineer Classic, App State's pitchers have allowed just three hits and have struck out 14 batters.
How it Happened
After Moshos struck out two hitters in the top of the frame, App State's offense went right to work and scored three times in its first at-bat to take an early lead. McClain started the game with a single before Hamby singled to put two on for Barrett. Barrett promptly delivered home App State's first run with an RBI double and put runners on second and third with nobody out for Schafer.
The Mountaineers scored two more runs courtesy of a groundout and a sacrifice fly to take a three-run lead into the second inning. Moshos struck out two more hitters in her second frame of work, and then three more hits helped produce four more runs to make the score 7-0 after two complete innings. McClain deposited a single into left field that scored
Marti Henkel from second base before a fielding error and another sac fly scored two more runs.
Moshos helped keep Furman off the board by working around a one-out walk, Furman's first baserunner of the game, to post a scoreless third. App State responded by scoring six runs in the third inning to take a 13-0 lead, helped in large part by a Gore grand slam with two outs. The home run was Gore's first of the year and App State's second grand slam in as many days against the Paladins.
Furman recorded its first hit in the fourth inning, a two-out double, but Moshos worked to strand the runner at second. The Mountaineers used their third sac fly of the game, this one from Hamby, to score run No. 14 and a fielder's choice to plate run No. 15 to tie their season-best mark for runs scored in a game this season. Furman hit a home run to avoid being shut out in the top of the fifth, but Moshos ended the game with her eighth strikeout of the game to clinch App State's 15th victory of the season in run-rule fashion.
Saturday Notes
Home runs
App: Gore (1)
FUR: Hawkins (3)
WP:
Sophie Moshos (7-2): 5 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts
SV: N/A
LP: Jamison Noonan (0-7): 4 IP, 11 hits, 13 runs (12 earned runs), 4 walks, 0 strikeouts
Up Next
Due to weather, App State's game vs. Queens, which was initially scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, has been postponed to Sunday. App State will now close the Mountaineer Classic on Sunday with a doubleheader against Queens that starts at 1 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+.
