App State baseball used a walk-off RBI in the bottom of the ninth to take a 12-11 win over the East Tennessee State Buccaneers Tuesday.
The game was the second meeting of the year between the former Southern Conference rivals after a 9-6 win for the Mountaineers in Johnson City, Tennessee, on Feb. 27.
Senior pitcher Trey Tujetsch got the start and looked to rebound after leaving the game against Western Carolina after 0.2 innings pitched.
An error at first base in the bottom of the first allowed redshirt junior shortstop Austin St. Laurent to come home for the first run of the evening, while senior center fielder Banks Tolley scored on a single from junior third baseman Adam Quintero.
An unearned run from senior left fielder CJ Boyd on redshirt freshman catcher Graham Smiley’s flyout to end the inning gave the Black and Gold a 3-0 advantage after one.
After a scoreless second, singles from Boyd and Quintero in the bottom of the third drove home graduate student first baseman Drew Holderbach and Tolley to make it a 5-0 ball game.
Tujetsch exited the game after three innings, in which he struck out two batters and allowed no runs.
The Buccaneers got on the board in the top of the fourth with an RBI double, but the Mountaineers responded in the bottom of the inning with a St. Laurent score on a Boyd sacrifice fly. That was followed up by a pair of singles by senior designated hitter Xavier Moronta and senior right fielder Hunter Wilder that brought home a combined three runs to give the Black and Gold a six-run lead.
An RBI single in the top of the fifth cut the ETSU deficit to five, but a leadoff St. Laurent homer helped App State pull away once more. Holderbach came home on a Moronta single later in the inning to give the Mountaineers an 11-4 lead with four innings to play.
The Buccaneers scored in three-straight innings with three runs in the sixth and seventh and one more in the eighth. The Black and Gold went scoreless during the same period, making it a tie game entering the ninth.
A quick three-and-out from redshirt sophomore pitcher Zach Lewis kept the score tied with three outs remaining. St. Laurent opened the bottom of the inning with a single and advanced to third on a Tolley single. Boyd stepped into the batter’s box next and hit another single to bring home St. Laurent and end the game.
“We really don’t want to be in that position, but it is what it is,” Boyd said after his walk-off hit. “Zach in the last inning, that really gave us the momentum to come out and do what we did in the last inning. Once that happened, we knew we were going to win.”
The Mountaineers will travel to Atlanta this weekend to resume Sun Belt play against the Georgia State Panthers. Start times are scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All three games will be available to watch on ESPN+.
