App State baseball traveled to Johnson City, Tennessee to play Eastern Tennessee State University where the Black and Gold won 8-5. This was a back and forth game for the Mountaineers as they looked to continue their good start to the year.
The game started off quietly with a scoreless frame by both sides, with both pitchers notching a pair of strikeouts as it looked to be a war of attrition. However, this was quickly broken as graduate student infielder Steven Smith would lead off the top of the second inning with a single and steal second base to have a runner in scoring position with 1 out. This set up a 2 run home run for sophomore left fielder Riley Luft giving the Black and Gold their first lead of the game.
The Mountaineers stretched their lead by capitalizing on a throwing error by third baseman Luke Matlock to have a runner in scoring position with no outs. A ground out advanced the runner over and a hit by pitch gave the Black and Gold runners on the corners with one out. Redshirt junior infielder Jonathan Xuereb brought one home on a ground out to third, which was followed by a Smith double to bring home another, making it 4-0 Mountaineers in the third.
The Buccaneers responded with 2 runs of their own in the bottom of the third off of a double to left field.
ETSU then claimed the lead after 2 walks in the bottom of the fourth to have runners on first and second, designated hitter Tyler Fetterman hit a double to right plating two for Buccaneers. This was followed by an RBI single by first baseman Tristan Curless, giving ETSU their first lead of the game.
The Black and Gold fought back in the top of the fifth when freshman outfielder Nico Soul smashed a solo shot to tie the game at 5. The Mountaineers weren’t done adding to the lead as junior outfielder Drew DuPont wanted to get in on the action, launching a solo shot of his own to right, giving App State the lead.
After this it was all Mountaineers, as ETSU was shut down offensively for the rest of the game. The Black and Gold would stretch the lead again in the eighth when DuPont would again go to the right, bringing in Xuereb on an RBI double.
The Mountaineers tacked on one more before all was said and done on a Soul sacrifice fly making the score 8-5. ETSU couldn’t get anything going off of redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Nick DiRito who struck out the side to close the game with a final score of 8-5.
The Black and Gold will head back out on the diamond Feb. 27 to play Gardner-Webb University in a three game series down in Boiling Springs. First pitch is at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
