By Jacob Plecker. BOONE, N.C. — In what was the team’s first home game of the season and first contest at its new facility, App State Softball got out to an early lead after a third-inning double, but couldn’t make it stand up as the Georgia Southern Eagles scored five times in the final three innings to claim a 5-3 win at Sywassink/Lloyd Family Stadium on Friday. The Mountaineers scored two runs in the final inning of play, but important seventh-inning insurance runs provided the Eagles the right amount of cushion to secure the win.
App State (9-19, 0-4 SBC) tallied the first hit and the first RBI at its new stadium in the third inning. The first hit came courtesy of a two-out double by Summer Simpson, which helped spark a string of three straight hits to plate the first run. Makayla McClain drove home Simpson with a double to left-center field immediately following Simpson’s double. App State tallied five hits against the Eagles (19-12, 3-1 SBC), with four of them being doubles.
Sejal Neas started the Mountaineers’ home opener in the circle and posted a solid outing, allowing just one earned run in 4.1 innings. She carried a no-hit bid into the fifth inning. The senior held the Eagles in check through the first four innings despite seeing some traffic on the bases as she stranded four runners.
The Mountaineers were led offensively by Macy Hamby who tallied two hits in three at-bats. Macy Hamby tallied one of four Mountaineer doubles in the game with a shot off the right-field wall in the sixth inning. Madison McIntyre also posted a double in Friday’s game, which drove home App State’s second and third runs in the seventh inning.
How it Happened
Taking the field for the first time at its new home, Neas and the Mountaineer defense worked a scoreless top of the first, working around a lead-off walk and a stolen base to do so. Neas picked up her first strikeout for the first out of the inning, which drew an ovation from the Mountaineer crowd.
App State went quietly in its first at-bat, but Neas kept the score at zeroes after stranding two runners in the bottom of the second with a groundout. Both teams traded 1-2-3 frames in the next inning, but the Mountaineers struck for the game’s first run in the bottom of the third.
With both teams hitless entering the inning, Georgia Southern retired the first two Mountaineers via strikeout, but Simpson ended the no-hit threat by blasting a line drive to the right-field wall for a double. It was the first hit at the new stadium. Three pitches later, McClain laced a double of her own to the left-field wall to score Simpson and make it 1-0.
Not done yet, Hamby reached base on an infield hit down the third-base line and then stole second base to put two runners in scoring position with two outs. But the Eagles remained calm and forced a groundout to end the inning.
Neas and her defense responded to the Mountaineers’ score by posting the fourth consecutive scoreless inning of her start. App State saw a walk by Leah Gore to lead off the fourth inning, but a double play ended the threat with the Mountaineers still leading by one as action moved to the fifth.
Georgia Southern used two hits to even the score at one in the top of the fifth, breaking up Neas’ no-hit bid with a lead-off double. The Eagles scored thanks to a single to right by Emma Davis, which forced the Mountaineers to turn to their bullpen. Ava Beamesderfer came on and stranded the bases loaded to keep the score tied.
The Mountaineers went down quietly in the fifth inning and the Eagles scored two more times to take the lead in the sixth. App State retired the first two hitters in the inning, but Georgia Southern saw a two-out runner reach on a dropped third strike. After an infield hit to put two on, the Eagles’ lead-off hitter rung a double into the gap to score both runners, which gave them the lead.
Needing to answer quickly, Hamby reached second base via a double and advanced to third on a passed ball. This forced a pitching change, which proved to be the right move as Georgia Southern kept App State off the board. The Eagles used this momentum and scored twice more in the final inning to get to their final total of five runs.
App State didn’t go quietly in its final at-bat as both Marti Henkel and Julia Girk reached base to lead off the inning. Wasting no time, McIntyre smoked an opposite-field double into the outfield to plate two runs, closing the gap back to two runs. This forced a pitching change by the Eagles, and they turned back to their starter, Maddie Johnson, who closed out the game to secure the victory.
