By Matt Present. BOONE, N.C. — Three Banks Tolley bombs, capped by a walk-off shot worthy of an enthusiastic bat flip, clinched top-six Sun Belt Conference positioning for App State Baseball and a spot in the double-elimination portion of next week’s championship tournament.
Already the Mountaineers’ record holder for single-season home runs, Tolley hit solo homers in the third, eighth and 10th innings to lift App State (31-18-1, 16-12-1) to a 6-5 victory against Georgia Southern (29-25, 16-12) in the opening game of a Thursday doubleheader at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium. The Eagles completed the doubleheader with a 14-4 victory in seven innings in game two.
Due to forecasted inclement weather, first pitch of the regular-season finale is now scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. with the Mountaineers’ Senior Day ceremony beginning at 10:30 a.m.
App State’s 31 wins on the season are the most since 2012, when the Mountaineers set the program record with 41 victories, including an NCAA regional appearance.
Game 1
After Tolley’s 22nd homer of the season gave the Mountaineers a 4-1 lead heading to the fourth inning, he erased a 5-4 deficit with his 23rd homer of the season leading off the bottom of the eighth inning. Leading off the bottom of the 10th, Tolley drilled a 1-1 offering over the wall in left-center, as his 24th homer of the season traveled 449 feet.
Tolley three-homer game is the second in program history, joining Andre Crawford who accomplished the feat against Marshall in 1986.
An excited Tolley flipped his bat straight up into the air before trotting around the bases and being mobbed at home plate by his teammates. Beginning its final Sun Belt series of the regular season in fourth place, App State needed one win to guarantee a finish of no worse than sixth with a tournament format that forces seeds 7-10 to play in single-elimination games Tuesday in Montgomery, Ala., before the double-elimination phase of the event starts Wednesday.
After Tolley’s eighth-inning homer in Game 1 tied the score, Cody Little pitched a scoreless top of the ninth, with first baseman Drew Holderbach snagging a line drive in the air and doubling up the runner who had hit a one-out double in the previous at-bat.
Grey LaSpaluto then pitched a scoreless top of the 10th, stranding runners at the corners with a swinging strikeout to set the stage for Tolley’s heroics.
App State improved to 10-3 this season in starts by Jackson Steensma, who allowed one run over the first four innings before giving up three runs in the fifth. He struck out seven batters before giving way to Little, who pitched the next four innings and allowed just one run.
Tolley finished 3-for-4 with one walk, while Austin St. Laurent went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a two-run single. Joseph Zamora was 2-for-3 at the plate.
Game 2
Despite loading the bases with one out in the first inning, the Mountaineers were only able to score one first inning run, leaving three aboard, and the offense never found its rhythm in game two, tallying just six hits and stranding six runners in the ballgame.
CJ Boyd opened the scoring with an RBI double in the first, but Georgia Southern jumped in front with a three-run third and never relinquished the lead.
The only other offense for the Mountaineers came in the fourth when Joseph Zamora, Austin St. Laurent and Drew Holderbach hit three consecutive singles, followed by a sac fly from Banks Tolley.
Tyler Tuthill delivered a scoreless inning in relief in the sixth-year senior’s final appearance at Smith Stadium. Ryan Sleeper and Jake Beaty also each tossed a scoreless frame for the Mountaineers.
The Eagles scored five in the fourth, two in the fifth and four in the seventh to pull away for a run-rule win.
App State will look to earn its fifth consecutive Sun Belt series win, and its first against the Eagles since 2013, in the rubber game on Friday.
By David Rogers. NARRAGANSETT, R.I. — Spring had not quite arrived when we visited High Country-based golf course architect Ron Cutlip’s latest creation, South Shore Golf Course, carved out of the rocky hills, vales, woods and marshes of a picturesque, historic farm in New England. Even so early in the season, the “greening” had begun and a golfer’s zeal was palpable.
For best photography viewing on a desktop monitor or laptop, please click on any image for Slide Show mode.
Golf course architecture is a multi-science, multi-discipline profession. Understanding the topographical features impacting hydrology, drainage, agronomy, turfgrasses, physics, geometry, civil engineering, soil sciences, botany, psychology and a tract of land’s natural systems are all part of the endeavor. In Cutlip’s hands, so is understanding the history of the venue and its surrounding region.
Golf course architect Ron Cutlip, left, greets Geronimo Narizzano, of Buenos Aires, Argentina and a member of the University of Rhode Island men’s golf team. Photographic image by David Rogers
Decisions about where to carve out a fairway, place a tee box or craft a bunker are seldom arbitrary. For Cutlip, who has worked on almost two dozen courses across New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, course design is about appealing to — and challenging — the human spirit.
A good design provides an escape from the golfer’s normal day.
“When the player finishes a round, I want them to feel like they have conquered something. Let’s face it, this is a recreational market, so the courses need to look tough but maybe play easy from the proper tees,” said Cutlip as we walked over a rise in the No. 8 fairway and down to a sculpted green nestled against the woods.
A rock wall dating back to early Colonial days in the 1600s serves as backdrop to Hole No. 5 at South Shore Golf Course, Ron Cutlip’s latest design. Photographic image by David Rogers
“And yet, the course still needs to provide a test to the player who desires a challenge,” he added. “A good design creates an escape from a person’s normal day. The golfer needs to be presented with both the game and the dramatic beauty of nature during the round. Long-term, the golfer should feel good about their experience and return again and again whether they’re a professional or a weekend warrior.”
A unique course feature is a rock wall dating back to early Colonial times.
The South Shore course is a 9-hole, central feature of a new, 55-plus housing development, South Shore Village, in South Kingstown. The development is just minutes from the sun, sand and sea of Rhode Island’s beaches. The custom-built homes are all one-level, which frequently appeals to residents whose hair is beginning to gray.
The subdivision is built on the historic, Jerry Brown Farm. No, it is not related to the former governor of California, but traces back to a tract of land owned by Jeremiah Brown in the 1700s. Dotting the landscape throughout the region are rock walls dating back as far as the 1600s where settlers cleared land of the boulders and repurposed them to keep livestock from running away.
Photographic image by David Rogers
Cutlip uses one of these ancient walls as the backdrop to the green at the No. 5 hole.
“When you think about the history of this land and the rugged lives experienced by the inhabitants who worked this area, I think it is important to memorialize that history by preserving this wall,” said Cutlip, one foot elevated to a spot on the wall, the other planted in the nearby grass.
Golf course designs are usually a mixture, a combination, of the natural topographical features of the land as well as artificial constructs.
Hole No. 9 at South Shore Golf Course is protected by a rocky ‘moat’. Photographic image by David Rogers
“I’d say most of my courses are 70 percent to 80 percent natural,” said Cutlip. “Even where there are artificial features, I like to take a natural characteristic and accentuate it. That big boulder? Use it as a natural hazard, a challenge for the golfer to get around. That bump of a hill? Build it up to frame the green, visually. I don’t think I have any holes that are less than 50 percent usage of the natural features. Sure, you have to cut down some trees to create fairways, but it is not just to clear land. You do it with creative purposes in mind.”
A good testimony as to the quality of golf played at South Shore is that it has become one of the favorite tracts for the University of Rhode Island men’s golf team to play and practice. On the day we toured the course, the URI team was already there, getting in some practice swings, and were eager to discuss various features with the course designer.
Each collegian had a favorite hole, all for different reasons. Made up of four freshmen, a sophomore, a senior and a graduate student in terms of their eligibility, they arrived at Rhode Island from a variety of locales, including Beijing, China; Alberta, Canada; and Buenos Aires, Argentina, as well as Massachusetts, Florida, New York, Vermont and one local young man, from Narragansett.
Larry LeBlanc, left, is the developer of South Shore Village, a 55+ residential subdivision in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, for which Ron Cutlip of Blowing Rock was hired as the golf course architect. Photographic image by David Rogers
By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Based on Watauga’s Round 1 performance, it is easy to understand how the Pioneers earned the No. 1 seed in the NCHSAA 4A West bracket of the North Carolina state playoffs.
BONUS PHOTOS at bottom of article. For best viewing on a laptop or desktop monitor, click on any image for Slide Show mode.
When a soccer team spends most of the game time controlling possession in the attacking half of the field there is a high probability for it to emerge the victor. That is exactly what happened on May 13 at Jack Groce Stadium, with No. 1-seeded Watauga women’s soccer rolling over No. 32-seeded Ragsdale (Jamestown), 9-0.
Watauga’s Katie Durham sizes up the Ragsdale goalkeeper…
… then pummels the ball into the back of the net for one of her two second-half goals.Photographic images by David Rogers
Executing the team’s short-passing, ball possession strategy almost to perfection, the deft-ball handling and one- and two-touch passing of the Pioneers dominated, from the defense to the attacking third of the field.
Six Watauga players were credited with assists on a night where rain clouds poured in early in the second half and made ball-handling a bit trickier. The assists went to Katie Durham, Georgia Parker, Savannah Duvall, Sammy Morgan, Sam Bertrand and Morgan Flynt.
On the receiving end of those assists were a pair of “hat tricks,” three goals each by Flynt and Parker. Durham shrugged off a first half bloody nose to return and tally two goals in the second half while Bertrand added a goal, too.
“Overall, it was a great way for us to start our playoff run at home,” said Watauga head coach Chris Tarnowski after the game. “The rain certainly made the ball roll faster, but we adjusted to that and to Ragsdale’s game. We were able to find some openings in their defense. Our offense is really clicking and our forward/midfield players are so unselfish in the final, attacking third; they’re looking for one another and making some beautiful passes. Our defense is playing strong and communicating, non-stop, so front to back we’re really in a good spot as we advance in the playoffs.”
In Round 2, Watauga will host No. 17 South Mecklenburg, which upset No. 16 Cox Mill in Concord, 2-1.
FULL ROUND 1 SCORES IN THE 4A WEST BRACKET:
No. 1 Watauga def. No. 32 Ragsdale, 9-0
No. 17 South Mecklenburg def. No. 16 Cox Mill, 2-1
3A West: No. 7 A C Reynolds def. No. 26 St. Stephens, 4-0
BONUS PHOTOS
Nice save by Ragsdale’s goalkeeper on May 13. She was kept busy by the Watauga forwards and midfielders in the attacking third. Photographic image by David RogersWatauga’s Katie Durham dribbles past a Ragsdale defender in Round 1 of the state playoffs, May 13. Photographic image by David RogersMattie Durham was Watauga’s not-so-secret weapon with several well-placed corner kicks in Round 1 of the state playoffs vs. Ragsdale. Photographic image by David RogersWatauga’s Georgia Parker (9) gets one of three goals against Ragsdale in Round 1 of the state playoffs, May 13. Photographic image by David RogersHannah Graham (25) maneuvers past Ragsdale on May 13. Photographic image by David RogersHannah Graham (26) receives a Watauga pass and settles the ball on May 13 vs. Ragsdale in Round 1 of the state playoffs. Photographic image by David RogersWatauga’s Hannah Graham (26) on attack vs. Ragsdale in Round 1 of the state playoffs. Photographic image by David RogersMattie Durham with another well-placed corner kick sets up a Watauga attack on goal. Photographic image by David RogersIt is going to be another goal for Georgia Parker (9) vs. Ragsdale in Watauga’s 9-0 win in the first round of the state playoffs. Photographic image by David RogersDon’t mind me, but my fancy footwork is going to take this ball around behind you on attack. Photographic image by David RogersGooooaaaaaalll! Photographic image by David RogersWatauga senior Katie Durham sizes up the Ragsdale goalkeeper…… then pummels the ball into the back of the net for one of two second half goals on May 13 in Round 1 of the state playoffs. Photographic images by David Rogers
By David Rogers. BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — History often repeats itself and not necessarily in a good way.
Perspective
Back in 1889, the U.S. Congress authorized President Benjamin Harrison to proclaim a two-million-acre area in Oklahoma as “open for settlement.” It set the stage for what became the Oklahoma Land Rush in which settlers could claim 160 acres of otherwise public land and gain legal title to it if they met certain conditions.
There were few rules. Settlement of the long-withheld lands of Indian Territory prompted all manner of prospective settlers to hitch their teams to wagons, load their families and worldly goods, or saddle their fastest horses. Large accumulations of would-be settlers were chomping at the proverbial bit to claim ownership of the land, once permitted. Then, on April 22, 1889, permission to enter the region was granted. More than 50,000 people rushed in, aiming to claim for themselves 160 acres of what had been dubbed, “Unassigned Lands.”
From the outside, it looked to be more chaotic than an organized way to transfer ownership of real estate. Besides the Native Americans being pushed aside, there were many cases of settlers sneaking into the region ahead of the event’s official date, all to get a head start in claiming prime parcels. Not surprisingly, greed also proved a catalyst for claim jumping and often violence. It is a short calculation to understand that demand outweighed supply in a big way: two million acres divided by 160 means that only 12,500 parcels were available. From the outset, a large majority of those 50,000 settlers were destined to come away empty handed.
As the Oklahoma Historical Society puts it, “April 22, 1889, was a day of chaos, excitement and utter confusion.”
A Modern-Day ‘Rush’
Only a few years ago there was a vigorous debate on university campuses: Should student athletes be compensated for their talents and services beyond a college scholarship?
Critics pointed to the multi-billion-dollar industry that had become college athletics, particularly in football and men’s basketball, suggesting that creating wealth on the backs of student athletes — with restrictions on what they could and could not do — was simply unfair. A college scholarship, whether full or partial, was simply not enough when the student athlete was contributing to the enrichment of the institutions and their administrators, including the coaches in so many cases.
Should there be limits to player (and school) greed?
Fast forward and college athletics have become the “Wild Wild West,” in some ways similar to the Oklahoma Land Rush of yesteryear with nothing in the way of real rules. By some reports, more than 3,000 players were in the college basketball transfer portal by the May 1 deadline.
At the deadline for athletes to enter their names in the portal, only four of the 362 NCAA Division I colleges and universities did NOT have one or more players enter the portal. Not surprisingly, Army and Navy were two of those institutions with probable military commitments tied to each player’s education. The other two schools were Kansas and Marquette.
Making Sense of Chaos
It is hard to make sense of the current chaotic environment for player recruitment and retention. Players are likely to enter the portal with hopes of cashing in on a recent good season, getting paid by a new school. Maybe they are motivated by the promise for more playing time. Some make a move for a perceived higher profile stage to play on: a better-known basketball school with a history of sending players to the NBA or, in the case of football, to the NFL. Still others might want to spend a year playing closer to their hometown.
For certain, there is little sense of loyalty to team chemistry or last season’s accomplishments:
Duke made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships and still had seven players enter the transfer portal.
Illinois won the Big 10 and made the Elite Eight, but their roster for 2024-25 is a turnstile, with six players entering the portal and going other places (Indiana, West Virginia [2], Memphis, and two uncommitted as of this date) and five newcomers for next season (from Arizona, Louisville, Evansville, Notre Dame and Mercer).
Auburn won the SEC but one of its top young guards is transferring to in-state rival Alabama.
Appalachian State had an historic season, winning a school record 27 games and the Sun Belt Conference regular season title before losing in the semifinals of the conference tournament. Almost immediately, eight players (including five of the highest profile athletes in the Mountaineers’ 2023-24 nine-man rotation entered the transfer portal.
And these are just a few of a myriad number of similar stories.
Research and analysis of High Country Sports suggests there are four contributing NCAA developments over the recent past serving to make the current environment uncharted — and some say “nonsensical” — territory:
The creation of the Transfer Portal, facilitating the process by which student athletes can transfer schools.
The approval of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) compensation. In short, student athletes can now get paid.
Removing the requirement for a student athlete to sit out a year after transferring.
And finally, allowing the student athlete to transfer as many times as he or she wants during their years of college eligibility.
And by modifying the “red shirt” eligibility criteria and liberalizing “medical red shirts,” the NCAA effectively extended those years of eligibility.
Common $en$e?
Today, relatively few people argue with the idea that student athletes should be able to receive compensation that goes beyond the traditional scholarship, including room and board. Especially football, basketball, and baseball have become popular entertainment channels for alumni, sponsors, students and fans of either the school or the sport. It is big business drama and the players are the actors, often simultaneously perceived as both heroes and villains.
So while NIL seems like a natural fit for getting that compensation element accomplished, where today’s environment started to get crazy is when integrating NIL with the other three developments, which are all related to a student athlete’s ability to transfer schools in addition to getting paid.
As one NCAA Division I basketball coach noted recently, “There are more reasons to transfer today than there are to stay at the school that first signed you. The obvious temptations to transfer are money, playing time, level of play (the exposure in playing at a higher profile program), and playing closer to home.”
Help From Modern Technology?
The Transfer Portal was introduced by the NCAA in 2018 as a compliance tool to help bring student athletes (wanting to transfer) together with programs wanting to recruit new players to their respective rosters, to help them find each other more readily by taking advantage of modern digital technology via the Internet. Part of the public intrigue about the Portal stems from up-to-date information not generally being accessible by the media or everyday people. Of course, that hasn’t stopped some enterprising outlets from maintaining transfer portal boards, even if the information they post on those boards is often late or incomplete.
But…
By itself, the Transfer Portal is innocuous. Where the NCAA may have created an uncontrollable monster is first by removing the requirement that a transferring player has to sit out a year before actually playing at a new school. Then the second rule change (just a year ago) allows the student athlete to transfer schools as many times as he or she wants during their period of eligibility.
Together, these four NCAA initiatives created a “free agency” environment with no salary cap and no player movement restrictions. If a student athlete wants to change schools every year in order to take a better offer (i.e. more money) or seize a perceived better opportunity for more playing time, he or she can.
For the player, a decision to enter the Transfer Portal is not without risk. Once they ask the school’s compliance officer to enter their name in the portal, the school’s obligation to offer financial aid for the previously accepted scholarship will more than likely end. What happens if another offer does not come through the portal? The full cost of the remaining years of college education falls on the player and his family.
How long would the multi-billion dollar businessmen owning those professional franchises tolerate the chaos in player movement or the unpredictable financial outcomes?
So, a decision to enter the portal should not be made without a lot of forethought, including a realistic self-assessment of the student athlete’s marketability.
“For every player entering the portal,” said Dustin Kerns, the men’s basketball head coach at Appalachian State, “we genuinely wish them well and hope they find what is best for them and their respective families. That is important. But there are risks because the player may not get picked up at all, or he may have to settle for whatever is the best offer out there, even if not what he wanted or expected.”
In what world is this not crazy?
In short, today’s college athletics environment can be summed up as “complete free agency.” There are no rules, no restrictions and no contracts.
Imagine a professional league like the NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB operating in such an environment. How long would the multi-billion dollar businessmen owning those professional franchises tolerate the chaos in player movement or the unpredictable financial outcomes? How long would it take the fans — their customers — to no longer care about a turnstile team roster that goes through wholesale changes, top to bottom, each season?
Right now, college athletics can best be described as organized mayhem. The simplest answer to the problems of escalating costs and player movements may be for a school to demand that a successfully recruited player sign a contract with some sort of buyout clause. If the player wants out of the contract, either he or a potential new school buys out the contract. That makes player movement more expensive so has the potential to help alleviate the problematic chaos by diminishing transfer demand.
College athletics has become big business and it may be time for all of the constituent interests to treat it like big business, contracts and all.
Men’s basketball is a microcosm for the ills of college athletics because it is the most competitive, with more teams playing at the highest level of the sport. There is no “Power Four” or “Group of Five,” but 362 teams in Division I trying to get better from year to year. A great many schools don’t have a football team and focus their branding and institutional identities on basketball, rightly or wrongly. This year, 358 (or 98.9 percent) of those 362 schools are participating in the transfer portal “rush,” either giving or taking or both.
POSTSCRIPT: A silver lining?
If there is a silver lining to the transfer portal, NIL and today’s free agency environment, it is this: Good players may not be as motivated to declare for the NBA after playing only a year or two of college ball because in many cases they can cash in on hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars through the transfer portal.
By David Rogers. CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No matter how good the athleticism, game experience and skill development as a team and as individuals are often the difference makers between winning and losing. Still just a second year program, the Watauga High School men’s volleyball battled hard, improved a lot with each match, and gained valuable experience for future matches on May 10-11 in the North Carolina state championship tournament for men’s volleyball. Final place in the tournament standings: No. 14.
BONUS PHOTOS at bottom of article. For best viewing on a desktop or laptop monitor, click on any image for Slide Show mode and page through them.
Hosted by the Carolina Union Volleyball Club, the Public Schools Division featured 16 teams divided into four, 4-team pools. Based on round-robin play against the other three teams in a pool, each team advanced to either a Gold, Silver or Bronze championship round bracket.
In most state tournament matches, Watauga players knew they were the underdogs but they were having a good time — and learning with each set. Photographic image by David Rogers
Watauga head coach Kim Pryor explained after the second match in pool play against the tourney’s No. 1 seed, Marvin Ridge, that because the Pioneers only had one opponent during the regular season (they played Ashe County several times, winning all but one), the state tournament organizers assigned the High Country’s best team as the No. 16 seed.
Pryor knows that getting better requires not just practice but also playing against better competition.
“Ashe County is a very good team and getting better and better, but like us they are inexperienced, too,” explained Pryor. “We haven’t had much success in getting other schools in our region to organize men’s volleyball teams and it has also been a challenge to get the better teams off the mountain to fit us into their league schedules. I am not worried about the early round seeding because if you are going to win a tournament you are ultimately going to have to play all of the best teams.”
Watauga’s Pool 1 included Marvin Ridge, Hough and TMSA (The Math and Science Academy), all Charlotte area schools that have for the most part been playing for several years and play against each other regularly.
The Pioneers went 0-3 in pool play so were relegated to the Bronze Division for the championship rounds, but it is worth noting they got better against each opponent. In meeting Hough, they lost 10-25, 25-20. Versus the Mavericks of Marvin Ridge, they also doubled their second round score, losing 8-25, 15-25. The two pool matches against TMSA were both very tight, losing 21-25 and 23-25.
In the opening match of the Bronze playoff bracket, Watauga battled to a 25-20, 16-25, 15-10 win over Millbrook, from the Raleigh area. In the Bronze final, a Pioneer rally fell short in the first set, losing to Christ the King, a private Catholic high school school in Huntersville, by a score of 20-25. Watauga bounced back in the second set, winning it decisively, 25-11, but fell short in the decisive third set.
The final standings in the Public School Division:
1 – Marvin Ridge (Matches: 6-0; Sets: 12-0)
2 – Reagan (5-1; 10-2)
T3 – Butler (3-2; 6-4)
T3 – Weddington (3-2; 6-4)
T5 – Hough (2-2; 4-4)
T5 – North Guilford (3-1; 6-4)
T5 – Union Academy (2-2; 4-4)
T5 – West Forsyth (3-1; 6-2)
9 – TMSA (3-2; 6-5)
10 – Chapel Hill (2-3; 5-8)
T11 – Riverside (1-3; 3-7)
T11 – T C Roberson (1-3; 3-7)
13 – Christ the King (2-3; 5-7)
14 – Watauga (1-4; 3-9)
15 – Millbrook (0-4; 3-8)
16 – North Henderson (0-4; 1-8)
The final standings in the Private School Division:
By David Rogers. NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — It is NASCAR’s All-Star Week at North Wilkesboro Speedway but it is much more than the exciting Cup Series races on the weekend. At 0.625 miles around, the iconic NWS oval is short-track racing at its best, including midweek Pro and Late Model competitions that serve as the proving ground for future stars in NASCAR’s top three stock car competitions: Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck.
There will undoubtedly be a lot of stories told this week around the North Wilkesboro Speedway venue, but few people can possibly be as good of an ambassador for stock car racing as Dylon Wilson. A fourth generation driver-owner competing on the zMAX CARS Tour, Wilson literally grew up some 300 yards from the North Wilkesboro Speedway start-finish line — and may be father to a fifth generation soon to love burning rubber, driving around in circles and trading paint.
On the eve of North Wilkesboro Speedway’s hosting the NASCAR All Star Race for the second consecutive year, Wilson sat down with High Country Sports to talk about Speedway Motorsports’ rescue of the iconic stock car racetrack from the overgrown weeds that were poking up through the grandstands just three years ago, what the rebirth of the track means to him and the region as well as to his family, and to help us understand some more about the stock car racing world arguably at the foundation of NASCAR.
The CARS Tour race at North Wilkesboro is my Daytona 500.
Wilson’s great grandfather was Charlie Combs, who was one of the original owners and builders of North Wilkesboro Speedway, where construction began in 1946. The Cup Series was originally known as the Strictly Stock Series and NASCAR concluded its first, 8-race season at North Wilkesboro on Oct. 16, 2949. North Wilkesboro was part of the NASCAR circuit for 47 years, until it was removed from the Cup schedule after the 1996 race.
What does it mean for you to have stock car racing, especially NASCAR, return to North Wilkesboro?
Driving at North Wilkesboro means everything to me. It makes my life complete. I didn’t come along until 1996, which was toward the end of the track being part of the Winston Cup Series. For North Wilkesboro to make this comeback and become fully operational… Well, I dreamed about it my whole life. Honestly, I didn’t think it was realistic but as it became closer to reality I was overwhelmed with excitement and ready for it. When it came back in 2022, we could check that off the bucket list. So then it became, ‘Well, we are racing here again. Now I want to win here.’ That is my next goal.
In which racing series are you competing, wanting to win, as you say?
It is called the zMAX CARS Tour for what are known as Late Model Stock Cars.
Most people would consider the CARS Tour maybe a step below the NASCAR Truck Series. As far as the pecking order goes, the CARS Tour is grassroots racing where you will see some of the future Cup series stars competing today. Here at North Wilkesboro, you will see guys racing on Wednesday for CARS that you will eventually see on Sunday in the Cup series. The CARS Tour is professional racing. The events are at a professional venue and there are a lot of really good drivers. I know that because I am competing against them every week.
On the backside of the grandstands near Turn 4 is an iconic ‘Winston Cup Series’ sign. Look closer and you can see that it was painted over another sign, ‘Combs Tower’. Photographic image by David Rogers
Well, how does the CARS Tour racing compare to NASCAR Cup Series events, from a competition standpoint?
Some consider the CARS Tour even more intense because it is a closer, tighter field than what you will normally see in the Cup series. The lap times between the pole sitter and the guy who qualifies last are usually closer together than what you might see in a Cup race.
For North Wilkesboro, we will probably have 36 cars in the field. Most weeks on the CARS Tour there are 32, 34, depending on how many local guys are competing in an event at the various racetracks. But there are usually 20-28 drivers who compete in every race during the season.
The zMax CARS Tour has largely been a regional competition but now there is also another series that goes all the way out west. It is a little bit different car, called Pro Late Model. We drive a Late Model Stock Car. They look very similar, but they have a different motor, different weight and stuff like that. The general consumer wouldn’t tell the difference, but the Pro series guys go all the way out to California to race while the Late Model Stock guys typically stay in the Southeast U.S.
From week to week, how many people come out to watch a Late Model Stock Car or LMSC race?
I saw a report recently that last year we averaged about 22,000 spectators at each race.
With those numbers, I can see why a lot of folks in Wilkes County look at the return of the North Wilkesboro Speedway as an economic driver.
Sure it is an economic driver, but perhaps more than any other racetrack North Wilkesboro Speedway is a community cause and a community effort. Everyone comes together. I don’t know how to explain it except for the Field of Dreams movie where they re-enacted that baseball ball game between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees. There is a special feeling here, every day, when you see this racetrack sprouted up out of the ground.
Dylon Wilson stands in front of the iconoic Winston Cup Series sign painted over the ‘Combs Tower’ sign bearing his family’s name that once identified grandstands near Turn 4 of North Wilkesboro Speedway. Photographic image by David Rogers
“Sprouting” is an interesting use of words given what was here just three years ago.
North Wilkesboro Speedway looked pretty rough for a long time with the weeds growing up through the grandstands after it was all but abandoned in 1996. I was pretty pessimistic about it ever coming back. I proposed to my wife here because I thought it was going to be flattened at some point and I wanted those pictures. But the revival effort kind of snowballed and it eventually worked out.
Getting back to that community aspect, everybody is excited about the racetrack’s comeback. The whole county is excited about it because it is this big prosperous thing that is good for the area’s economy.
In the larger scheme of things, what do you think the reopening of North Wilkesboro means or should mean to NASCAR?
The revival of North Wilkesboro is important to NASCAR, I think, just as it is really important to the regional community. It could be key to NASCAR’s long-term success, integrating these iconic venues like North Wilkesboro and Darlington and others, potentially, with the bigger tracks. For me, it means taking care of and preserving where the sport started. Take care of the roots. It is OK to expand and go to the big tracks and the road courses, but I think you have to take care of the sport’s beginnings and bringing North Wilkesboro back into the mix is an awesome first step.
The CARS Tour is professional racing on professional venues and there are a lot of really good drivers.
How many of the Late Model races will you run this year?
Well, the North Wilkesboro Late Model race on May 14 will be my first one this season. I have been a little preoccupied. My wife recently gave birth to a baby boy. I wanted to be there for mama the whole time. My son wasn’t born here at Wilkesboro but he came into the world on the same night I was supposed to be racing in Hickory and in a hospital in Hickory. So I was just down the road! It was a pretty cool experience.
It sounds like you have established pretty good priorities.
Family has always been very important to me. I love racing and I will always provide my son with an opportunity to be involved with racing, if he wants. My whole career has been in racing. It is a great career with great people around. There is no place else I would rather be than with a 2-week old kid, testing at North Wilkesboro.
We are going to leave the number of races I run this year kind of up in the air. Probably between six and 10. One of the luxuries of the CARS Tour for me is they race different regions and in certain parts of the schedule they race three or four races within 30 to 40 minutes’ drive from my house. I’ll hit all of those and then some others that aren’t too far away so I can spend more time at home. Once we get the new baby experience further along as new parents, I will be back on the Tour a whole lot more.
Does your son have a helmet and racing gloves yet?
(laughing): Well, there isn’t any pressure for him to be a race car driver but we did bring him to the track for testing a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t like the ear plugs much so stayed inside quite a bit, but once things settled down we gave him the grand tour.
What is your son’s name?
As soon as we figured out that our baby was a boy, we knew what his name was going to be. We named him “Wilkes” because of what this racetrack means to our family and in honor of all our family members who have been part of this track.
Does he have a nickname yet? Maybe “Smoke” or because of the legacy stories from around these parts, “Moonshine”?
(smiling): We don’t have a nickname for him yet. I kind of like Willy and my wife sometimes calls him Wilkie, but maybe Moonshine will work, too!
So, there is the potential that Wilkes will be the 5th generation stock car racer in your family. You mentioned your great grandfather, but also tell me about your grandfather and father.
My great grandpa isn’t with us anymore. He was one of the kindest gentle giants I ever met. He was a county commissioner for Wilkes County at one point. People sometimes compare him to Andy Griffith.
My grandfather was Dean Combs. He was Junior Johnson’s crew chief when Brett Bodine was driving the car, but before that he drove in a lower level, NASCAR-sanctioned series. They ran four cylinders back then on full-size racetracks like Daytona and Talladega. He won five championships doing that, about 60 races. He really dominated here at North Wilkesboro, winning something like 14 or 15 times. He has lived his entire life about 300 yards below this racetrack’s start-finish line. He still lives down there. I think he is mowing today, getting after it even at72 years old.
My father raced in the same division that my grandpa did. He was originally from Corpus Christi, Texas and moved to the area to pursue a racing career. He ended up meeting my mom’s father, Dean Combs, who hired him as a crew chief. He met the boss’ daughter and then I came along. So, here I am.
North Carolina golf is awesome. There is rarely a flat lie, so it makes me better.
You mentioned earlier that the CARS Tour is a place to see some of the NASCAR Cup Series drivers of the future. Do you have any aspirations for making that jump?
This may be hard for people not familiar with the CARS Tour to understand but I am at the competitive level that I can afford to race. A lot of CARS Tour drivers are in the same boat as me. For a lot of us, the Late Model Stock Car series is our Cup series. There is absolutely a pathway for guys that want to move up, but for a lot of us this is where we want to be. For me, in particular, the Late Model race on May 15 is my Daytona 500.
I spoke about that pathway. Last year, Brendan Queen won the CARS Tour race here and this year he is racing in NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series. That is just one example. It is an opportunity that could be presented to every winner here. It doesn’t matter what the level of competition is. Any winner on the CARS Tour could also run well at the next higher level.
At the age of 28, I wouldn’t say that I am ready for a skyrocketing career path to the next level, but I absolutely would love to jump on the opportunity to drive one of those cars here at North Wilkesboro.
I am happy at this level. CARS Tour is our top level and if you come and see one of these races I think you will see what I am talking about.
I put a lot of effort into every race, but especially here at North Wilkesboro.
What does a CARS Tour team’s budget look like?
That is a good question and the answer is, “It varies.” You will see some guys with haulers that look like they came straight from a Cup race and then you will see other teams pulling a 24-footer (trailer) like we do. Your typical budget can range from $100,000 for lower budget teams all the way up to a quarter million. The purses for most races are $7,500 for the winner, $10,000 for some races. You get tire money back for starting. Even though it isn’t the top level, you get rewarded for trying.
What is the sponsorship environment like?
It is on an upswing right now. With North Wilkesboro coming back, businesses are seeing the eyes that are watching, especially in the new world of social media. The new platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram are providing new opportunities for drivers who have embraced them. Especially in this region, short track racing is seeing a rise in sponsorship interest. It doesn’t cost as much to sponsor a short track car as it does a Cup series car, so if a business owner wants to spend, say, $5,000 to get his name out there, you can do that pretty effectively. In the Cup series, it will cost about a million dollars to get your name on a car.
Now you have an auto-related business down in Bethlehem, North Carolina, a little south of here, right?
Yes, I do (car) wraps and decals. I have my own printing business, plus I do a little bit of video and photo production work on the side. We can put a big number on the side of your car and you can come do some laps to see how you stack up against the CARS Tour guys!
Well, that might be fun but I doubt my Mazda 4-cylinder would ‘stack up’ very well against you guys. When you aren’t driving, producing wraps or changing diapers, what do you like to do?
I am a big golfer. I like golf. The little guy is taking up a lot of my golf time right now, but that is only temporary, I guess, and I wouldn’t trade this time with him just to chase a little white ball around a course.
Do you have a favorite course?
My local track is Brushy Mountain Golf Course. North Carolina golf is awesome. You rarely get a flat lie so that makes me better. Up in the High Country, I have played both Blowing Rock Country Club and Boone Golf Course, both really fun courses.
Other than CARS Tour, what other racing experiences have you had that are memorable for you?
I worked at RCR, Richard Childress Racing, as a pit crew guy. My father worked there for several years and I worked as a summer job learning pit crew stuff. A lot of pit crew members in NASCAR now are high level former college athletes, especially from football.
Well, that begs the question: How are pit stops and pit crews different than, say, the Cup Series. Or are they the same?
Oh no. We don’t pull into the pit, run around and change tires and maybe lose spots. Ours are really controlled cautions and it is really to save budget. If we had to hire a pit crew like the Cup series, our budgets would skyrocket. On our teams, there are 6-8 guys who have been there for years changing tires, refueling, and all. Of course there are times when you have to move fast to get a car back out there, but usually caution laps don’t count. You don’t go a lap down or something. You just go to the tail end of the field. This year for the North Wilkesboro race, they will all be controlled cautions. That way we can do all of the talking on the track.
Now the Cup boys, they will have live pit stops and even pit crew competitions.
OK, one more question: Was there any truth to the rumors that the big cavern recently found under the North Wilkesboro grandstands was part of an old moonshine business?
(laughing): I think the most recently discovered cavern they found under the grandstands was more of a sinkhole. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something else around this area. I have heard plenty of stories about things around these hills and around the race track. There are plenty of stories, but also ones that the locals don’t like heard on the air waves!
By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — In one of the most entertaining baseball games to be played at any level, it was unfortunate that one of the team’s had to lose and bring their 2024 season to an end. When the dust had settled. it was visiting No. 22 seed Davie County doing celebratory back flips and somersaults after edging No. 11 seed Watauga, 3-2, in Round 1 of the North Carolina 4A state playoffs.
BONUS PHOTOS at bottom of article are best viewed on a desktop or laptop monitor after clicking on any image for Slideshow Mode.
It was a game with just about everything a high caliber baseball game promises: sparkling double plays, sacrifice bunts, deeply hit balls to the warning track, masterful coaching decisions and, yes, even controversial umpire calls — and extra innings, 12 tension-filled frames, to be exact. The patrons on this night — the grandstands were overflowing to standing room only on the sidewalks overlooking the field — got their money’s worth.
Davie County’s Braeden Rodgers pitched six strong innings for the War Eagles, striking out five Pioneer batters while allowing 1 run on 6 hits. Photographic image by David Rogers for High Country Sports
For most of the contest, it came down to a low-scoring pitcher’s duel. Watauga sophomore Everett Gryder started on the mound for the Pioneers and pitched a full seven innings. He struck out nine War Eagle batters, walked two and hit one batter while giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits.
It was a game with just about everything a high caliber baseball game promises.
Davie County senior Braeden Rodgers matched Gryder, going six innings as the starter, giving up one run on six hits, striking out five Pioneers while walking three.
After Gryder retired the Davie County side in the first inning, the Pioneers threatened in the bottom half of the frame when senior Jameson Hodges opened with a sharply hit single up the middle. He was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice when Evan Burroughs smacked a ground ball to the shortstop, but the War Eagles’ relay throw to first on the attempted double play sailed past the first baseman. The speedy Burroughs scampered to second on the error.
With just one out, the Pioneers had a man in scoring position and the promise that any kind of hit would likely bring him home. While Rodgers walked Maddox Greene, he was able to wriggle out of the inning by getting Watauga catcher Cooper Critcher and designated hitter J T Cook to consecutively ground out to first, ending the threat.
Gryder’s second inning on the mound didn’t start so well, hitting Davie County’s first batter, Cooper Bliss, with an early pitch. But after a sacrifice bunt back to the pitcher that advanced Bliss to scoring position at second, Watauga’s sophomore ace struck out the next three batters to end any scoring threat.
In the bottom of the second, Watauga again got a man in scoring position when Jake Henderson drew a one-out walk before David Pastusic ripped a double to the left field fence. The War Eagles got out of trouble, however, when Rodgers struck out the next batter and got the next one to fly out, stranding Henderson at third and Pastusic at second.
It was a routine play and you have to make those, even when you are down.
The top half of the third inning is where Davie County threatened to break open the ball game. The first batter, Coston Colamarino sliced a ground ball to third but the routine out became trouble on a bad hop in front of third baseman Burroughs. In misplaying it, Colamarino was able to beat the throw to first, the fielding error compounded by a throwing error that allowed the Davie County runner to take second base. Gryder issued one of his few walks to the next batter, Coy James, but a wild pitch also allowed Colamarino to advance to third.
While Gryder got his first out by striking out Andrew Krause, after James stole second, the War Eagles’ Hunter Potts singled to left, driving in both Colamarino and James for the first runs of the ball game. Gryder got out of the inning with no more damage but Davie County had taken a 2-0 early lead.
Backed by a solid Pioneer defensive effort that included two double plays, Gryder was able to avoid any more Davie County scoring through the seven innings he pitched and the Pioneers were able to get a run back in the bottom of the fifth when Hodges doubled to center and Greene drew a 2-out walk. Critcher followed with a single to left, scoring Hodges, but Greene was held up at third base, which is where he was stranded when Cook closed out the inning by grounding out to third baseman, Colamarino.
With the game on the line, head coach Mike Windish took advantage of Evan Burroughs speed to put the sophomore in scoring position after stealing second and third.
With the War Eagles leading, 2-1, as the game entered the bottom half of the seventh inning, the Pioneers needed at least one run to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Any more runs would result in a walkoff win for Watauga.
Hodges led off the inning by grounding out to DC’s shortstop, James. After Burroughs walked, Watauga head coach Mike Windish went into “small ball” mode knowing that he needed at least one run to stay in the game. Taking advantage of Burroughs’ speed, Windish had the fleet and versatile sophomore steal both second and third, putting him into easy scoring position with one out and even a ground ball would likely score him from third. The strategy proved itself when Greene laced a 1-out single to left, scoring Burroughs and knotting the score at 2-2. They were unable to bring Greene home with what would have been the walk-off winning run, but sent the game to be decided in extra innings.
Watauga sophomore ace Everett Gryder went 7 innings on the mound in Round 1 vs. Davie County. Photographic image by David Rogers for High Country Sports
And extra innings aplenty there were and every scoring threat vanquished until the top of the 12th inning. The Pioneers sent senior Jameson Hodges to the mound for a little more than two innings, then sophomore Evan Burroughs for almost two innings, and finished the game with another multi-sport sophomore, Cade Keller on the hill. The War Eagles relieved Rodgers first with senior Cole Whitaker, who gave up Burroughs’s two steals and the tying run before himself being replaced by another senior hurler, Conner Berg, to get the final out of the 7th inning.
Berg came close to pitching another full game, with five-plus innings of work and kept the Pioneer bats mostly throttled down, allowing no runs on three hits, with two walks and four strikeouts among the 21 batters he faced.
The Pioneers had a couple of scoring threats in the extra innings, but each time thwarted with a good defensive play by the War Eagles in the field.
In the top of the 12th, Burroughs walked a couple of batters around a bunt single by Colamarino before Watauga head coach brought in Keller. With the bases loaded, a wild pitch brought in the War Eagles’ third an final run before Keller settled in to retire the next three batters and limit the damage.
In what was almost the walkoff winner for the Pioneers in the 9th inning, Maddox Greene hit a line drive to left that was fielded on the fly by Davie County left fielder Craig McBride, who then doubled up the runner at second.
Unfortunately, Watauga could not counter with a run of their own, sending the War Eagles into victory elation.
After the game, an emotion trio of Pioneer seniors spoke with reporters about the game and the 2024 season. Jake Henderson, who has been accepted at UNC-Wilmington after his Watauga graduation but will not play baseball at the next level.
“It was probably one of the most fun games of baseball that I’ve played here (at Watauga),” said Henderson, before adding, “I’ve never played in a game that went this long. It has been fun playing with these guys (Hodges and Critcher) for the past 13-14 years and I just wish them luck in college next year.”
Hodges, who has signed tto play baseball next year at Milligan College, had a clutch play in the 12th inning to to cut off a runner at the plate after fielding a ground ball at second base, saving another War Eagle run.
“It was a routine play and you have to make the routine plays. (Overall) I think that is one of the best games I have ever played in. It didn’t end the way we wanted, but I still enjoyed it.”
With the win, Davie County advances to Round 2 where they will face No. 6 seeded Cox Mill, a 10-1 winner over Southwest Guilford in the opening round.
In another 4A game of interest, No. 26 seeded Alexander Central upset another Northwestern Conference member and the No. 7 seed, South Caldwell, 11-2.
KEY PERFORMERS
WAT – Everett Gryder: 7 innings pitched, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits, striking out 9 while walking 2.
WAT – Evan Burroughs: 1-4, 1 run scored, 2B, 2 walks, 2 stolen bases
WAT – Jameson Hodges: 2-4, 1 run scored, 2B, walk
WAT – J T Cook: 1-6, 2B
WAT – Cooper Critcher: 1-6, 2B
WAT – Maddox Greene: 1-4, 1 RBI
WAT – Jake Henderson: 1-2, 2 sacrifice hits, walk
WAT – Jake Blanton: 2-6
WAT – Dillon Zaragoza: 1-1, sacrifice hit
DAV – Braeden Rodgers: 6 innings pitched, 1 run on 6 hits, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks
DAV – Hunter Potts: 1-5, 2 RBIs, walk
DAV – Corbin Angus: 2-5
DAV – Logan Allen: 1-1, 2B
DAV – Coy James: 0-4, 2 walks, 1 run scored, stolen base
DAV – Coston Colamarino: 1-5, 1 run scored
DAV – Craig McBride: 0-3, 1 run scored, walk
BONUS PHOTOS
In the 7th inning, Evan Burroughs stole both second and third to put himself in scoring position for the tying run that would send the Round 1 playoff game between Watauga and Davie County into extra innings. Photographic image by David Rogers for High Country Sports
Watauga sophomore ace Everett Gryder went 7 innings on the mound in Round 1 vs. Davie County. Photographic image by David Rogers for High Country Sports
Davie County’s Braeden Rodgers pitched six strong innings for the War Eagles, striking out five Pioneer batters while allowing 1 run on 6 hits. Photographic image by David Rogers for High Country Sports
By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — It has been five years since Watauga’s softball team earned a berth in the North Carolina 4A state playoffs but that streak came to an end on May 6 when the Pioneers were awarded the No. 28 seed in the 4A West regional bracket of 32 teams.
Watauga will face the No. 5 seed, Reagan High School, in Pfafftown on May 7. The winner will advance to face the winner of No. 12 Porter Ridge and No. 21 Mallard Creek, with the higher seed to advance set to host the Round 2 game.
The full NCHSAA 4A West region pairings for Round 1:
By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Because South Caldwell prevailed in the Northwestern Conference tournament last week with an 11-4 win over Watauga at M S Deal Field in Granite Falls, the Spartans ended up with a slightly higher seed (No. 7) vs. the Pioneers’ No. 11.
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The North Carolina state playoffs start May 7 with Round 1. The No. 7 seed guarantees at least two home games for South Caldwell, assuming they win Round 1 vs. No. 26 Alexander Central. Watauga gets a Round 1 home game vs. No.22 Davie County, but would need No. 6 Cox Mill to lose vs. No. 27 Southwest Guilford in order to get a second home game upon advancing to Round 2.
The full Round 1 pairings for the North Carolina 4A West Region (higher seed is home team):
No. 1 T C Roberson vs. No. 32 Northern Guilford
No. 16 Weddington vs. No. 17 Glenn
No. 8 Hopewell vs. No. 25 Palisades
No. 9 Ragsdale vs. No. 24 South Iredell
No. 5 Providence vs. No. 28 Southeast Guilford
No. 12 West Forsyth vs. No. 21 Hough
No. 13 Asheville vs. No. 20 Ardrey Kell
No. 4 Reagan vs. No. 29 Lake Norman
No. 3 Myers Park vs. No. 30 Butler
No. 14 Charlotte Catholic vs. No. 19 East Forsyth
No. 6 Cox Mill vs. No. 27 Southwest Guilford
No. 11 Watauga vs. No. 22 Davie County
No. 7 South Caldwell vs. No. 26 Alexander Central
No. 10 South Mecklenburg vs. No. 23 Hickory Ridge
No. 15 Northwest Guilford vs. No. 18 Marvin Ridge
No. 2 Cuthbertson vs. No. 31 East Mecklenburg
Other games of regional interest, at the 3A level:
By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Dominant pitching combined with explosive hitting is usually a good formula for winning baseball games at any level. Appalachian State doubled up on that concept vs. South Alabama on May 5 at Smith Stadium, cobbling together a doubleheader sweep. The winning effort included a 10-2, one-hitter in Game 1 and a run-rule shortened, 13-1 victory in Game 2.
It was the third straight Sun Belt Conference series win for the Mountaineers, improving their record to 28-16-1 overall and 13-10-1 in league play.
GAME 1
App State centerfielder Banks Tolley accounted for half of the team’s offensive production, clubbing two home runs and driving in five runs, including twice crossing the plate on his HRs. Austin St. Laurent used his “panda power” to drive in two more runs in the sixth inning with a ground ball single through the middle. Two batters later, Tolley tapped an RBI groundout to the shortstop to complete the 3-run inning.
Between the Mountaineers’ 3-run efforts in the first and sixth innings, they manufactured single runs in the third, fourth and fifth frames.
One of the most impressive storylines of Game 1, with first pitch at 9 a.m. because of Saturday’s rainout, was the pitching performance of Dante Chirico. He gave up a home run in the first inning to the first Jaguar batter he faced, centerfielder Will Turner, but shook it off to make that the only hit of his seven innings on the mound. The senior righthander got in a bit of a jam in the top half of the fifth when he hit pinch hitter Ethan Melton with a pitch and issued a walk to third baseman Tyler Borges before a ground ball throwing error gave Melton a pass to the plate. Chirico got out of the inning without further damage and pitched two more scoreless innings before giving way to reliever Cody Little the rest of the way.
Although South Alabama also scored the one unearned run, the pitching duo of Chirico and Little held the Jaguars to 1-for-29 hitting in Game 1.
Austin St. Laurent: 2-4, 1 run scored, 2 RBIs, walk
C J Boyd: 2-4, 1 run scored, 2 RBIs, 2B, HR
Xavier Moronta: 1-5, 1 run scored, 2B
Joseph Zamora: 1-2, 2 runs scored, 1 RBI, hit by pitch
GAME 2
In the second game, which started with first pitch at approximately 12:30 p.m., the Mountaineers again combined good offensive production with strong pitching performances. Senior righthander Trey Tujetsch retired the first eight batters he faced, allowing just two hits in the three-plus innings he was on the mound. Fellow senior Grey LaSpaluto finished the run-rule shortened game, allowing just two more hits and one run in his three-plus innings of work in relief.
Meanwhile, App State’s offense started out hot with five runs in the first inning and stayed that way with three more in the second inning and two additional runs in the third frame. Power was a constant feature, with the Mountaineers seeing rocket HRs launched by Tolley, Xavier Moronta and Braxton Church, sprinkled around doubles, singles and sacrifice flies.
Key Performers:
Tyler Tujetsch: winning pitcher (3-2), 3.1 innings pitched, 2 hits, no runs, one strikeout
App State has two more league series in the regular season, beginning with Old Dominion May 10-11-12 in Norfolk, Va., before closing regular season play with a 3-game series vs. Georgia Southern May 16-17-18 at Smith Stadium.
The postseason Sun Belt Conference tournament is slated for May 21-26, in Montgomery, Ala., hosted in Riverwalk Stadium.
