May 28, 2010

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CBI Live: SoCon Game 10: #4 Elon 7, #5 Samford 4

CBI Live
Balanced attack boosts Mountaineers past Cougars

By Phil Stanton

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

CHARLESTON, S.C. – It was a balancing act for Appalachian State.

The Mountaineers scored in six of their first seven at-bats and had each starter with at least one run as seventh-seeded ASU defeated second-seeded College of Charleston 10-6 in an elimination game on Day 3 of the Southern Conference Tournament at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.

The Mountaineers (37-17-1) meet sixth-seeded Western Carolina at 9 a.m. on Saturday and must defeat the Catamounts twice to reach Sunday’s Championship Game.

The Cougars (42-17) will now wait to hear their name called on Monday when the NCAA Tournament field is announced.

ASU scored single runs in the first and fifth and pairs in the second, third, fourth and seventh.

“We were very opportunistic throughout the ballgame,” said ASU head coach Chris Pollard said, “which was great. To get two really good at-bats out of our nine-hole and have great balance up and down the lineup, that’s something that we’ve really lacked this year, and hopefully that’s a sparkplug for us to continue to have that type of balance for the rest of the tournament.”

Hector Crespo singled and scored on a groundout by David Towarnicky in the first for ASU. Tyler Zupcic tripled and scored in the second and Crespo added a sacrifice fly later in the frame as the Mountaineers took a 3-0 lead.

The Cougars hit for the cycle in the bottom of the second. Greg Blake led off with his 15th homer. Jose Rodriguez doubled and Dre Watts singled before Joey Bergman’s triple to right center off the glove of the diving centerfielder brought home Rodriguez and Watts to tie the game at 3.

ASU answered quickly with a pair in the top of the third before a two-run bomb by Rodriguez sparked a three-run rally in the bottom of the frame as the Cougars took a 6-5 advantage.

The Mountaineers kept the bats going with two in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the seventh for a 10-6 lead.

CofC threatened in both the seventh and eighth, but a pair of 6-4-3 double plays doused the rallies.

Towarnicky went 1 for 4 with two RBI. Wes Hobson and Tyler Zupcic both had three hits and one RBI.for ASU.

Ryan Arrowood (8-4) got the win, giving up six runs in the first three innings but putting up zeroes after that. He allowed 11 hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five. Will Helms worked 1.1 innings and Taylor Miller pitched the final 1.2 innings to record his first save.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” Pollard said. “We had a lot of seniors step up and play really big today. The outing we got from Ryan Arrowood was huge. Our club played well, and the biggest thing is that I felt that we competed really well.”

(photos courtesy of Southern Conference Media Relations Office)