By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — At 1,296, the second largest crowd in Smith Stadium history witnessed solid run production by App State in the early and middle innings on April 2. Scoreless pitching in the final three frames backed up the Mountaineers’ offense, propelling them to an 11-3, non-conference midweek win over regional rival, High Point.
Leftfielder C J Boyd has been in a little bit of a slump of late, but seemed to break out of it in leading off the bottom half of the first inning with a solo shot over the left field fence. The Mountaineers manufactured three more runs in the first frame after Boyd’s leadoff dinger, including a single each by Austin St. Laurent and Banks Tolley before Drew Holderbach ripped a 1-out single up the middle, scoring St. Laurent.
Adam Quintero fouled off the first pitch thrown to him, but then watched patiently as the Panthers’ starting pitcher, Bryan Rivera, chucked four straight balls that passed outside the strike zone, the walk loading the bases for the Mountaineers.
App State right fielder Hunter Wilder worked the count to full, 3-2, before getting a free pass to first, scoring Tolley. Then catcher Tommy Walker pushed Holderbach home with a sacrifice fly to left. That ended the first inning scoring for the Mountaineers, but they jumped in front with a 4-0 lead.
The visiting Panthers closed the deficit, scoring two runs in the second inning and one in the third while blanking App State in the bottom half of the frames with a new pitcher, Howell Polk.
But after St. Laurent singled in the bottom half of the 4th inning, then Tolley and designated hitter Braxton Church hit consecutive doubles to score two more runs, Polk was chased and replaced by Jake Potts on the mound. He didn’t fare much better, giving up run-scoring doubles to Quintero and APP second baseman Joseph Zamora. High Point brought Dalton Olsovsky to the mound to get the final out of the inning, but not before the Mountaineers had batted around in the inning, scoring 5 runs on 5 hits and had pushed the advantage to 9-3, a lead they never surrendered.
App State added two insurance runs in the bottom half of the 5th inning. After Tolley singled, Holderbach took advantage of the wind blowing out, hammering the ball deep over the left field fence for his fifth home run of the season.
Meanwhile, three righthanded relief pitchers each took a turn on the mound for the Mountaineers, including Max Tramontana, Grey LaSpaluto, and Zach Lewis. None of them allowed High Point to score a run, although Tramontana and Lewis each allowed one hit and one walk. Among the five hitters Lewis faced, three were strikeouts, scattered around an early hit, a couple of wild pitches and a walk by the redshirt sophomore from Winston-Salem.
Next up for the Mountaineers is a road trip to Harrisonburg, Va., in a Sun Belt Conference test at James Madison on April 5, 6, and 7.
KEY PERFORMERS
- APP – Drew Holderbach: 3-4, 2 runs scored, 3 RBIs, HR, walk
- APP – Banks Tolley: 3-4, 3 runs scored, 1 RBI, 2B, walk
- APP – Austin St. Laurent: 3-5, 2 runs scored, 2B, walk
- APP – Joseph Zamora: 3-5, 2 RBIs, 2B
- APP – C J Boyd: 1-5, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, HR, walk
- APP – Adam Quintero: 1-3, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, walk
- APP – Hunter Wilder: 0-2, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2 walks, hit by pitch
- APP – Braxton Church: 1-5, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, 2B
- HPU – Miggy Echazaretta: 1-2, 1 run scored, 3 walks, 1 stolen base
- HPU – Brayden Simpson: 1-4, 1 run scored, 1 RBI, walk
- HPU – Cael Chatham: 1-2, 1 run scored, 2B, walk
