App State baseball got started on some early spring cleaning Friday through Sunday, sweeping the University of Massachusetts Lowell in a highly competitive 3-game series in Hickory.
The Mountaineers and the River Hawks made the trip to LP Frans Stadium in Hickory for the weekend series. App State won a pitchers’ duel Friday 1-0 to open the 3-game set.
Senior first baseman Juan Correa drove in the only run of the game in the bottom of the first, knocking a ball up the middle to score senior catcher Braxton Church.
Exceptional pitching allowed the Mountaineers to preserve their slim lead throughout the game. Redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Caleb Cross had a stellar outing, pitching 5.1 innings of shutout baseball and striking out 10 River Hawks, a career-high.
The bullpen picked up right where Cross left off, as junior left-handed pitcher Jake Beaty and redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Jordan Fisher gave up just 1 hit combined in the remainder of the game and kept the River Hawks off the scoreboard.
Both teams found more offense Saturday, but App State prevailed once again, 7-5.
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early lead thanks to a long home run to left center by Correa in the first. The Black and Gold scored twice more in the second on an RBI single from freshman infielder Tyler Lichtenberger and a sacrifice fly from Church that plated freshman utility player Riley Luft.
Luft had quite a day Saturday, making his first collegiate start and collecting his first career hit on a ball that bounced off a UMass Lowell infielder’s glove. Luft finished the game with 3 hits, including a double.
UMass Lowell answered in the third, scoring 4 runs on 3 hits, a sacrifice fly and a Mountaineers error to take the lead.
App State countered with 4 runs of their own in the fourth. Lichtenberger hit a line drive to right center which scored senior infielder Joseph Zamora, before Correa uncorked his second home run of the afternoon, a no-doubt 3-run shot way over the left field wall to regain the lead for the Mountaineers.
It was a lead they would not relinquish, as the bullpen again quieted the bats of the River Hawks following a shaky start by senior right-handed pitcher Caleb Marks. 4 relief pitchers — graduate student Bradley Wilson, junior Reyn Watson, redshirt sophomore Cal Clark and redshirt junior Liam Best — combined to toss 6 innings, giving up only 1 run on a bases-loaded walk in the sixth.
Luft caught the final out in right field to finish off a sterling performance and clinch the series win for the Mountaineers.
App State capped off the weekend with a win Sunday in comeback fashion, 14-10.
The River Hawks scored early and often to start the game, collecting 3 runs off the Mountaineers starting pitcher, junior right-hander Everette Harris, in the first 4 innings. That included a solo home run in the second, their third long ball of the season.
App State tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom half of the fourth inning, courtesy of a 2-run double by redshirt sophomore catcher Graham Smiley and an RBI single by Lichtenberg.
Things looked to completely unravel for the Black and Gold in the top of the fifth. The River Hawks batted around their entire lineup, scoring 6 runs on 7 hits and 2 errors by Mountaineers redshirt junior outfielder John Kramer.
The Mountaineers would not be deterred. Correa singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth, sophomore infielder Tyler Figueroa drew a walk and Kramer got hit by a pitch. That loaded the bases for Zamora, who promptly crushed a grand slam on the first pitch he saw to send the App State dugout into a frenzy.
Lichtenberger continued the offensive onslaught for the Mountaineers, hitting an RBI single to tie the game before Correa stepped up to bat for the second time in the inning, hitting a ground ball single to UMass Lowell’s shortstop Zachary Scott, who then committed a throwing error, allowing the go-ahead run in the form of Lichtenberger to score from second base, completing the wild comeback and erasing App State’s 6-run deficit. What was a 3-3 game in the top of the fifth became a 10-9 affair at the end of the fifth.
Following the theatrics of the fifth inning, App State added 3 more runs in the sixth on a double from Luft, a wild pitch that allowed Zamora to score and a sacrifice fly from junior outfielder Xavier Lopez to bring home Luft.
Each team added a run to their totals in the eighth on RBI groundouts to finish the scoring. App State turned a double play to end the game and celebrate the series sweep.
The win Sunday was the 650th of head coach Kermit Smith’s collegiate career and propelled the Mountaineers to a winning record for the first time this season at 4-3.
