App State baseball closed out March with a series win over Marshall to advance to 17-8 on the season.
The series kicked off Thursday night with graduate student pitcher Tyler Tuthill getting the start. It was his first conference appearance since 2022 after Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the entirety of last season.
After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, consecutive doubles from junior infielder Adam Quintero and senior outfielder Hunter Wilder evened the score in the bottom of the second.
The Thundering Herd quickly regained the lead with a three-run homer from Elijah Vogelsong. That ended Tuthill’s night, who turned the mound over to junior Cody Little after giving up four runs in 2.1 innings pitched.Â
Redshirt junior third baseman Austin St. Laurent opened the bottom of the third with a solo home run to cut App State’s deficit to two.
Two scoreless innings later, the Herd used another three-run inning to extend their lead to 7-2. Junior infielder Joseph Zamora responded with a three-run blast into the Marshall bullpen in right field, bringing the Mountaineers back within two after six innings.
A two-run seventh inning for the Herd brought their lead to four, but a throwing error in the bottom of the seventh allowed St. Laurent to get home and make it a 9-6 ball game.
Two more Mountaineer runs in the bottom of the eighth and a scoreless ninth inning for Marshall put the Black and Gold down by one entering the bottom of the ninth, but they were unable to capitalize and fell short 9-8.
Redshirt junior pitcher Bradley Wilson made his seventh start of the season in game two on Friday.
The Black and Gold used a home run from senior outfielder Banks Tolley to claim an early 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the first. After Marshall scored a run of their own, App State put three more on the board in the second, highlighted by freshman first baseman Kameron Miller’s 455-foot shot.
A three-run homer by graduate student first baseman Drew Holderbach gave the Mountaineers a 9-3 lead after six innings, but a six-run seventh inning for the Herd quickly erased the advantage.
One more Marshall run in the top of the eighth put the Black and Gold down one with six outs to go. Tolley’s second home run of the day tied the game, and five subsequent RBIs in five at-bats gave App State a 15-10 lead, which they retained in the top of the ninth to tie the series.
Sophomore pitcher Jackson Steensma took the mound to start Saturday’s series finale. The Mountaineer bats started the game lightning hot, scoring five runs on five hits in the bottom of the first.Â
The Black and Gold offense only got better in the second, converting 12 base hits in the second inning into 10 runs to pull away to a 15-0 lead after two.
After three scoreless innings, a two-run homer for Marshall in the top of the sixth took a chip out of the App State lead, but a pair of two-run Mountaineer blasts from Tolley and Miller made it 19-2 in favor of the Black and Gold. The game was called after a scoreless top of the seventh for Marshall, allowing the Mountaineers to claim the game and series victory.
App State takes the field again Tuesday at 6 p.m. when they welcome High Point to Boone, and conference play will resume on the road at James Madison Friday at 6 p.m. Both games will have streaming available on ESPN+.
